Walk On Water
by Iris RainbowWolf
Summary: BOOK ONE. I was raised in the southern water tribe. I have seen nothing of the world beyond the ice. Just the stories brought back to us. But all that changes when my siblings and I discover a boy trapped in a ball of glowing ice. Now it is up to us to help this boy, Aang, in his mission to save the world. For he is the Avatar, and he is our only hope. Eventual Zuko/OC
1. Chapter 1: The Boy In the Iceberg

**Book One:**

 **Water**

 **Chapter One:**

 **The Boy In The Ice Berg**

When we were younger, Gran would tell us stories about the old days. Back before the war, there was a time of peace, when the Avatar kept the balance between the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Air Nomads. But that peace, that balance, was destroyed the Fire Nation attacked. A part of me used to believe that there had once been a good reason, but now I believe that the Fire Nation just craved more power.

In each corner of the world there existed people who could master and control an element. There was only one person who could control all four, the Avatar. Only he could stop the onslaught of the firebenders. But when the world needed him most, he vanished without a trace.

It's been a hundred years since then and the Fire Nation is nearing victory in the war. Two years ago, my father and the rest of our tribe left our village to aid the Earth Kingdom against the Fire Nation. Leaving me, my twin brother Sokka and our younger sister Katara to protect and care for our small tribe.

Some people believed that the Avatar was reborn into the Air Nomads and that somehow the cycle was broken. They have lost hope that an end to the Hundred Year war would ever come.

Katara and I haven't lost hope, however. We still believe that the Avatar will come back to us, that he'll return to save the world.

Sokka, Katara and I had spent the morning wandering to the icy river to catch fish for our village. The canoe was heavy on our shoulders but it was worth it. Our people were hungry and it was our duty to make sure that they were fed.

As we floated in the frigid waters, Sokka had his spear poised, waiting for a fish to cross his path. Katara and I didn't have spears. We didn't have arrows or nets or any tools like that. No, Katara had something else entirely.

Water Bending.

I sat on the opposite side of the canoe with Katara's back pressed against mine. My blue eyes focused on the seemingly still waters underneath us. Closing my eyes I inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. Though our canoe was barely rocking, I could feel the energy of the water swirling beneath my feet.

Suddenly I felt something move into my area of concentration. Instantly, as if on instinct, I started moving my mitten-covered hands. I could feel Katara doing the same. Suddenly, I had formed a bubble of water around my catch and It began to rise out of the water.

"Katara, are you seeing this?" I asked my sister in awe. I could just feel her nod, just like me she was trying not to break her concentration.

We weren't masters, this was one of the only things we really knew how to do. There was no-one in our village to teach us.

"Sokka look!" Katara called out, not looking at our brother who was basically ignoring us.

"Katara, shh! You'regonnaa scare him away." Sokka said quietly, one wrong move and his catch was gone. "I can already smell it cooking" my twin all but moaned as Katara and I fought to move our respective bubbles of water over to the small basket we had set up to hold our fish.

"But Sokka, Keira and I caught one!" Katara told him, her arms still waving, trying to mover her water bubble. I didn't have the confidence to even move. It was honestly taking all I had to keep the water in formation.

Slowly I moved, the water trailing just barely higher than the top of our canoe. As I did, Katara moved hers higher. But she had moved the bubble just a little _too_ far, and it popped against the back of Sokka's raised spear.

"Why is that any time either of you play with magic water, _**I**_ get soaked?" Sokka asked blandly. Biting my lip I looked at the water bubble and started to slowly move it to the basket. Just like Katara's, my bubble popped too, but it was a lot less violent.

"It's not magic, Sokka" I said calmly. "It's water bending."

"And its..." Katara started, but Sokka cut her off.

"An ancient art unique to our cultre, blah blah blah." Sokka said, "Look, I'm just saying, if I had powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

"You're calling _us_ weird?" Katara crossed her arms over her chest. " _We're_ not the ones who make muscles at ourselves every time we see our reflection."

As if proving Katara's point, Sokka had been flexing his muscles in the reflection of the still ice-water.

Suddenly, just as Sokka was about to respond, our conoe hit one of the small glaciers floating in the water. The impact causing our canoe to veer off to the rougher waters. Instantly Sokka and I grabbed the paddles and started trying to get us to the calmer waters. Though the ice had very different ideas and instantly floated into our path.

"Look out! Go left!" Katara shouted at us from the back. I love my sister, but her directions were very unhelpful.

And then our canoe was crushed by the ice and were stranded in the now calm waters.

"You call that _'left'_?" Katara asked snarkily.

"You don't like my steering?" Sokka asked, " Then maybe you two should have _waterbended_ us out of the ice."

"So now it's our fault?" Katara shouted. I don't think either of my siblings heard the small creak in the ice. I'm not saying it was caused by Katara, I'm just saying that our bending powers are connected to our emotions. When I told my sister to cal down, she just snapped at me, causing another creak.

"I knew I should have left you two at home" Sokka grumbled. "Leave it to a girl to screw things up."

"Hey what did I do?" I asked, slightly offended. "If you remember, I'm the only one out of the three of us who actually got a fish." I was really proud of that fact.

That's when Katara absolutely _lost it_. Normally I was the one scolding our brother, whish usually consisted of hitting him one way or another. But our dear sister had different ideas.

I watched as Katara's face twitched and contorted as she tried to hold in her anger. It didn't work.

"You are the most sexist, immature, nutbrained..." Her arms were flailing and I don't think she noticed the waved that the movements were causing. "Ah! I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" With that last surge of emotion, the ice that had been creaking was hit was a small wave...and cracked.

But Katara's anger didn't end there.

"Ever since mom died Keira and I have been doing all of the work around camp while you have been off playing soldier!"

"Uh, Katara..." Sokka stammered as he noticed the ice berg started to crack even further.

"I even wash all of the clothes!" she shouted. Well, not all of them. There's a certain way I like my clothes washed, our mom knew how to do it, and showed me before she died. "Have you ever smelled your dirty socks?" Katara asked our brother. "Let me tell you...NOT PLEASANT!"

Katara then moved her arms in a slicing motion, and the iceberg cracked in a very unsafe way.

"Katara, settle down" I tried to calm my sister. Sure I think Sokka deserved it, but Katara could scold him in an area that wouldn't respond to her untrained anger.

"No Keira!" Katara yelled at me. My little sister was scary when she was angry. "I'm _done_ helping him!" she said before turning back to our brother. "From now on, you're on your own!" she shouted, making the same slicing motion with her arms once again.

This cause a giant spurt of water to run up against the ice berg. Which, in turn, caused the giant cracks to widen dangerously before the iceberg crumbled into the water before our eyes. The impact caused a giant tidal wave, thankfully the three of us were quick enough and held onto the edge of our own little chunk of ice.

"Okay," Sokka breathed once we stopped moving. "You've gone from weird to freakish Katara," he told our little sister.

"Quit being such a jerk, Sokka" I sighed. "I think that was awesome. A little dangerous, yea, but that's not your fault. We don't have a Master, all we have is us."

"You mean... _I_ did that?" she asked in awe, unaware of her own strength.

"Yup, congratulations," my twin brother said sarcastically.

If anyone of us were going to say anything more, we didn't. Not because there was nothing to say, because there was plenty, but because there was a weird glowing coming from the depths below. The...sphere or whatever it was was slowly growing larger, and I could tell it was coming straight for us. I can honestly say that I was freaking terrified. For all, we knew it could be some weird thing from the spirit world that could kill us all.

Or maybe I was just being dramatic.

When the thing popped up above the waters surface, my siblings and I gasped and stumbled backwards. It was a GIANT ball of glowing ice. Ice _isn't_ supposed to glow! At least _normal_ ice isn't, I'm sure something from the spirit world would glow.

Slowly, Katara took a step or two towards the glowing mass. Sokka made a weak attempt to stop her, and really I just stood there looking at the iceberg in awe. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

But there was more than just ice infront of us. There was something, no... _someone_ inside of it. Were they alive? Doubtful. I couldn't help but wonder how long they had been in the ice. And why they were in the South Pole.

Suddenly, the persons eyes opened. People frozen in ice for however long don't just open their eyes! Unless they were from the Spirit World of course.

"He's alive!" Katara said inawe. "We have to help!" she said, grabbing Sokka's bladed boomerang.

"Katara! get back here! We don't know what that thing is!" Sokka tried to stop our sister from jumping across the ice blocks. "Keira do something!" he shouted at me. Sokka was older by fifteen minutes. so he liked to think that he was in charge.

Obviously, he had meant for me to do sometihng to _stop_ our sister. But instead, I grabbed the small knife I always kept in my boot and followed Katara across the ice. I could hear Sokka groan from behind me before he followed.

Together, Katara and I started hacking away at the giant glowing iceball. We had only given it a few good whacks before there was a crack and... _warm air_ blew out at us. Katara and I stumbled backwards into Sokka as the iceball continued to crack and split apart. As it did, there was a huge beacon of light that shot out into the sky.

Spirit World, I'm telling ya.

I could feel it, somewhere inside of my veins. In my _soul_. This meant something huge, imortant. I don't know if Katara felt it, and I know for a fact that Sokka didn't, but I could feel the water practically _humming_ around us.

Once the air around us settled, and the light dimmed, there was a large crater infront of us. And out of us rose a boy with glowing markings.

"Stop!" Sokka shouted, pointing his spear at the boy in defense. But just as the glowing boy stood and tried to walk towards us, he fell, his limp body rolling down the icy hill to a stop at our feet. Thankfully Katara was able to cushion his fall.

Only fo Sokka to poke the boy with the spear handle.

"Stop it!" Katara and I said in unison as I pulled my twin away from our sister and the boy. Turning my attention back to the two people infront of us, I watched as Katara made sure the boy was unharmed. Mostly my younger sister did all the work and I msotly just made sure Sokka didn't do anything stupid.

Slowly the boy started to wake.

"I need to ask you something" he groaned. He was young, probably around Katara's age, if not a year or two younger.

"What?" Katara asked.

"Please, come closer" his voice was weak.

"What is it?" I heard my sister whisper as she moved a little closer to the boy.

"Will you go penguin sledding with me!?" he suddenly asked in excitement.

"Uh...Sure?" Katara answered, just as confused as I was . This boy had been trapped in an iceberg, unconscious, and his first thought was penguin sledding?

"Sounds...fun?" I offered. Suddenly the boy was on his feet. It was weird though, as if the air itself pushed him up into a standing position.

The action caused Sokka to stand defensively once again.

"What's going on here?" the boy asked as he looked at his snowy surroundings.

"You tell us!" Sokka yelled."How'd you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen?" he asked, poking the boy in the stomach with the spear. Only for it to be swatted away.

"I'm not sure."

If we thought that this weird boy was the only thing trapped inside of the ice, we would have been wrong. There was a loud, almost terrifying growl coming from inside of the crater. At the sound, the bald boy climbed up the mountain of snow and ice.

"Appa!" I heard the boy say from the other side of the crater. "Are you alright? Wake up, buddy?"

Rounding the small snow mound, Katara, Sokka and I saw the boy fighting against the lip of a large, snoozing animal. There was nothing like this in the south pole, not that I've seen at least. It was bigger than even a polar bear dog.

Suddenly the creatures mouth opened and lifted the boy up on it's tongue with one big lick.

"You're okay!" the boy cheered as he hugged the creature's nose. It's head was bigger than me, Katara, Sokka and the boy combined.

"What si that thing?" Sokka asked, cautiously walkling forward, his spear still raised infront of him.

"Thsi is Appa, my flying bison."

"And this is Keira, my flying twin," Sokka said, his voice oozing sarcasm.

In the few books we had in our village, I had read about the flying bison. Legend has it, the extinct animals were companions to the also extinct airbenders.

As the bison nose twitched, the boy, Katara and I all started moving out of it's way. Sokka, howver, didn't and was rewarded with icky green snot.

"Don't worry, it'll wash out" the boy told my brother as Sokka started rubbing himself against the snow in hoped of getting the snot off of him. Ewwwwww. "So do you guys live around here?" he asked. This boy was a strange one. He acted as if he didn't just break out of a glowing hunk of ice.

"Ye..." I started before Sokka shoved me to the side and shoved the spear back infront of the boys face.

"Don't answer that!" my twin said. "Did you see that crazy bolt of light? He was probably trying to signal the fire navy."

"Oh yea, I'm sure he's a spy for the fire navy" Katara said sarcastically.

"That face just _screams_ evil incarnate" I drawled, pointing to the boy. "The paranoid one is my twin Sokka. I call him 'Idiot'." I smiled at my brother. "And the nice one is Katara."

"What's your name?" Katara asked the boy nicely.

"I'm..." the boy started, before his nose also started to twitch. "Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah...CHOOOO!" then suddenly he was in the air with a loud boom. "I'm Aang" he introduced as he came back to the ground with a slight sniffle.

"You just sneezed... and _flew_ ten feet in the air!" Sokka said in awe.

"Really?" Aang asked, looking up in the air. "It felt higher than that."

"You're an airbender" Katara and I said at the same time, both of us were in shock. The sirbenders had been wiped off of the face of the planet by the Fire Nation generations ago.

"Sure am!" Aang nodded happily. I felt as if he didn't know about the genocide that started the war.

"Giant light beams, flying bison, airbenders... I think I've got midnight sun madness. I'm gunna go home where stuff makes sense" Sokka said as he started to walk away.

I think my twins head was about to explode.

"Sokka, wa..." I tried to warm him we were stranded, but he had reached the edge of the ice before I could say anything.

"Well... If you guys are stuck," Aang spoke up. "Appa and I can give you a lift" Heoffered as he airbended up onto the head of his bison. It was then that I noticed the reigns tied to the fluff-monsters horns.

"We'd love a ride!" Katara said, running over to climb up onto Appa's back.

"Thanks!" I followed my sister. Cimbing up onto the back of the bison was more difficult than I had originally thought.

"Oh no. I am _NOT_ getting on that fluffy snot monster."

"Are you hoping some other monster will come along and give you a ride home?" Katara asked as Aang helped her intot the sadle. "You know _before you freeze to death_."

Sokka lifted his hand and opened his mouth as if he had a witty response. But he didn't and his head hung low as he walked over to Appa and joined us on in the saddle on his back.

"That's what I thought" I elbowed my twin playfully.

"Okay! First time flyers, hold on tight!" Aang told his from his spot behind the reins. "Appa, yip-yip!" he said, snapping the reins lightly.

Appa then started to move, his long tail flapped against the snowy ground before he lifted in the air. But then he landed in the water.

"Come on, Appa, yip-yip" Aang tried to spur the bison back in the air.

"Wooooow, That was trully amazing," Sokka said blandly, his arms folded across his chest as leaned against the back of the saddle.

"Appa's just tired" Aang defended. "A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky. You'll see." He said, looking at Katara with a large smile on his face.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" My little sister asked.

"Oh... I was smiling?" Aang answered. If I didn't know any better, I would say that the bald boy was blushing.

I didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. Instead I tucked my self in a corner of the saddle and curled up in a ball and fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was in my little bundle of furs with my small little spotted kitten curled up next to my head. She looked an awful lot like a snow leopard cub, except for the fact that I've had her for _years_ and she's still as small as ever. And the weird crescent moon shaped spot on her forehead.

Not even Gran, who knew pretty much everything, knew exactly what my little Luna was. I didn't really care, I just knew she was my pretty little kitty and I loved her.

With a large yawn, I stretched and sat up. I don't remember actually coming into my small area, a part of me wondered if yesterdays adventure actually happened. I've had crazier dreams.

I knew it wasn't a dream though. I just _knew_ that everything had happened. The water-bending, my little sisters melt-down and the air-bender boy we had found in the ice. Everything.

Sighing, I looked at my small pile of folded clothes. Socks, under garments, tight black pants, and a simple blue long sleeved shirt. Not that it really mattered what I wore, clothes would just be covered my my thick blue, fur-lined parka. The girly-girl inside of me wished I could wear something different, but the realist in me didn't want to freeze to death.

I shook the thoughtsfrom my head and dressed, tying my hair up into two braided buns before pulling on my thick, yet form fitting, parka, boots and gloves. I'm sure Katara and Gran needed some help getting breakfast ready.

Once outside, I saw that our small village was outside infront of our communial firepit, probably waiting to meet Aang. It was rare that we had visitors. Especially vistors with an extinct Bending power.

As if one cue, Katara came out of what I considered the guest-tent dragging Aang.

"Aang, this is the entire village" Katara introduced, pointing to the very small amount of people left in our tribe. Mostly women and children. Aang bowed respectfully, but the village shied away from him.

Like I said, it was very rare for us to get visitors in the South Pole. Especially after the fire navy came here and murdered the waterbenders.

"Why are they looking at me like that?" Aang asked Katara as I walked over to them. "Did Appa sneeze on me?"

"Maybe they forgot their manners" I said, glaring at the adults. The little kids didn't really know any better.

"No one had seen an Airbender in a hundred years" Gran told him. "Everyone thought they were extinct. Until my grandaughters and grandson found you."

"Extinct?" Aang questioned quietly, causing me to bite my lip. I couldn't help but wonder how long Aang had been trapped if he didn't know about the massacre of his people. It was, after all, common knowledge.

"Aang, this is our grandmother" I smiled at the old woman.

"Call me Gran Gran" Wow, for Gran that was almost heart-felt. She must like Aang.

"What is this, a weapon?" Sokka asked, taking the thin wooden staff from Aang. "You can't stab anything with this."

"It's not for stabbing" Aang told him, using his airbending to bring the staff back into his own hands. "It's for airbending."

As he spoke, Aang pressed what I assume was a hidden button on the staff, causing wings to sprout from the wood. I couldn't help but chuckle at Sokka's reaction. My twin brother, the fearsome warrior, jumping in fear at something so harmless.

"Magic trick! Do it again!" One of the little girls left in our village smiled, at least the children had gotten over their initial fear of Aang.

"Not magic, _airbending_ " Aang corrected. "It lets me control the air current around my glider and fly."

"You know last time I checked, humans cant fly" Sokka said, ever the non-believer. He knew these things existed. Has seen them with his own eyes, yet still refuses to believe them.

"Check again," I told Sokka as Aang gripped his glider and jumped into the air. I was in awe, just like everyone else. The smaller children were watching Aang soar through the sky like a bird. And then Aang crash uncerimoniously into a giant pile of snow Sokka called his watchtower.

It was a giant snow pile with rocks on it. Pretty lame watchtower if you ask me.

"That was amazing!" Katara said with a smile as she ran over to help Aang up. Whereas Sokka ran over to make sure his precious snow pile was alright.

"So awesome," I said, picking up Luna and walking over to my sister and our new friend. "This is Luna by the way" lifting up my kitty.

"Hi kitty" Aang smiled scratching the top of her head, just above the moon-shaped spot on her forehead.

"Great" Sokka groaned. "You're an airbender. My sisters are waterbenders, together the three of of you can waste time all day long."

"You're waterbenders!" Aang said excitedly.

"Sort of," I said letting Lunna down on the snow to play.

"Not yet" Katara agreed.

"Alright," Gran said, "No playing, come along girls, you have chores."

"I told you he's the real thing, Gran Gran" Katara whispered as our grandmother led us away. "We finally found a bender to teach us."

I bit my lip. Could Aang teach us how to waterbend? The two talents couldn't have been that different. Right?

"Girls, try not to put all your hopes in this boy."

"But he's special, I can tell" Katara tried to convince our grandmother.

I didn't have high hopes that Aang could help us with our bending. I knew he was special, that his appearance in our lives meant something. But that didn't mean the airbender could teach us waterbending.

"I sense he's filled with much wisdom" Now my little sister was just sucking up.

Looking over to where our 'wise' new friend stood with the kids, I snorted when I saw that he had stuck his tongue to his airbending staff.

"Yea, Katara, _suuuuper_ wise." I chuckled.

First chore, laundry. Katara and I usually switched off. Today I was on laundry duty and my little sister did the cooking. With Luna at my side, I lifted the large pile of clothes and dumped them into the warm basin of water. If I were to do this outside, the our clothes were surely freeze before they were dried.

I'm glad we did Sokka's laundry yesterday. I don't think I could deal with his socks right now.

While Luna curled up a little ways away, i stirred the clothes around in the water, scrubbing when necessary. Biting my lip I looked to the opening of the small hut I was in before looking back at the basin of hot water.

Slowly I moved my hand over it, concentrating on the ebb and flow of the water. As I did, I slowly lifted my hand up and down until a small, thin torrent of water lifted up into the air. Not trusting myself to really do much else, I let the water drop back into the basin.

I loved my bending, but at the same time...

It was the reason my mother had been killed.

A few hours later, after I had hung the wash up to dry, I was setting up a fire for the rest of the village to stay warm by. As I did, Katara came running over to me.

"Have you seen Aang?" she asked.

"No, not since we went to do our chores a few hours ago." I shook my head. "Is he missing?" I asked.

"I don't know" Katara bit her lip.

"Come on, let's see if Sokka's seen him" I suggested, standing up and brushing the snow off of my pants.

It didn't take us long to find my twin. He was training the 'warriors' of the tribe. A bunch of boys younger than ten.

"Have you seen Aang?" I asked him as the little boys walked away.

"Gran Gran said he disappeared over an hour ago." Obviously Katara was worried for our new friend.

But he was, apparently, just using the bathroom.

"Katara, Keira, get him out of here!" Sokka yelled. "This lesson is for warriors only."

Sokka's 'warriors' were using Appa's tail, which was propped up on a spear, as a slide.

"Stop! Stop it right now!" Sokka shouted as he ran over to Aang and the others, sighing Katara and I followed after him. "We don't have time for fun and games with a war going on!"

"What war?" Aang asked, sliding off of his bison. "What are you talking about?"

How could Aang not know of the war?

"You're kidding right?" Sokka asked.

Aang was quiet for a minute before peering around Sokka. A large look of excitement crossed the boys face.

"PENGUIN!" He shouted. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a small little penguin-otter waddling near by. And then Aang was gone.

"He's kidding...right?" Sokka asked us.

"Come on, Katara. Let's go find him" I sighed.

There was one place nearby that the penguin-otters liked to congregate. So, naturally, Katara and I checked there first.

It didn't take us long to get there. I was glad Luna didn't decide to follow. She liked to chase the penguins.

Which was exactly what Aang was doing. Only he wasn't thinking 'chase,hunt,kill' he was thinking more along the lines of 'sledding'. I'd assume so, at least, considering he had asked Katara to go with him.

"I have a way with animals" Aang laughed when we had walked over to him. Then he started waddling like one of the penguins and making a weird noise.

"Aang, I'll help you catch a penguin if you teach us waterbending." Katara offered.

"Katara..." I trailed off. I can honestly say that I don't think that Aang could teach us anything, at least not anything we didn't know.

"You got a deal!" Aang agreed. "Just one little problem. I'm an _airbender_ , not a waterbender. Isn't there someone in your tribe that can teach you?" he asked.

A solemn expression crossed over my sisters face, and I looked away from the airbender.

"You're looking at the only two waterbenders in the whole south pole," Katara told him.

"This isn't right," Aang said quietly. "A waterbender needs to master water" he was quiet for a moment. "What about the north pole? There's another water tribe up there, right?" he asked. "Maybe they have waterbenders that could teach you."

"Maybe..." Katara shrugged. "But we haven't had contact with our sister tribe in a long time."

"It's not exactly 'turn right at the second glacier'." I said, folding my arms over my chest. "It's on the other side of the _world_."

"But you forget" Aang smiled. " _I_ have a flying bison. Appa and I can personally fly you two to the north pole. Katara, Keira, we're gonna find you a master."

I had thought about it, before. Not to long after mom died and Katara learned about our powers over water. I had thought about packing up one of the canoes and traveling to the north pole. The only thing stopping me was my family. My tribe.

And my fear.

"That... I mean... I don't know. We've never left home before" Katara stammered softly. She was right. The furthest we had gone was the ive river where we had found Aang.

"Well... You two think about it" Aang told us. No pressure. "But in the meantime, can you teach me how to catch one of these penguins?" he asked.

"Okay, listen closely, my young pupil," Katara said in a sage-like voice.

"Catching penguins is an ancient and sacred art. Observe." I told him, looking at my little sister. Who had pulled out a small fish and tossed it to Aang. As soon at the slimy fish was in his hands, the penguin-otters surrounded him, wanting a bite of the yummy treat.

Soon after the three of us had wrangled our own penguins, we were sliding down a small mountain on their backs. It was a type of fun I hadn't had in a long time. Normally I spent my days babysitting, doing chores or reading. Not sledding on the backs of had even found a hidden tunnel that led to a frozen lake, an area we weren't really allowed to be in.

"Woah," Aang said. "What is that?"

Infront of us, was a large, terrifying mass

"A fire navy ship." I told him. "A very bad memory for our people."

As if his curiosity got the better of him, Aang walked over to the ship.

"Aang, wait!" Katara called out. "We're not allowed to go near it. The ship could be booby trapped."

"If you wanna be a bender," Aang said stopping at the bottem of the ship."You have to let go of fear." He told us.

Katara was the first to walk over to the Airbender. Biting my lip, I looked over my shoulder at the tunnel we had come out at. Aang was right, I knew that. The books and scrolls I had managed to find all said something along those lines. Fear could only hinder progress.

Taking a deep breath, I followed my sister and Aang. I just knew that this was a terrible idea.

The ship was creepy.

"This ship has haunted our tribe ever since Gran-Gran was a little girl," Katara told Aang when we stopped in what I assumed was the small amory. "It was part of the fire nations first attacks."

"Ok. Back up" Aang told her. "I have friends all over the world, even in the fire nation. I've never seen _any_ war."

"Aang" I finally spoke up. This has been bothering me ever since we found the airbender. "How long were you in that iceberg?" I asked.

"I-I don't know... a few days maybe?" he didn't sound so sure, and neither was I.

"I think it was more like a hundred years," I told him. Kaatra widened her eyes and she knew I was right.

"What? That's impossible." Aang denied. "Do I look like a hundred and twelve year old man to you?"

"Think about it," Katara told him "the war is a century old. You don't know about it because somehow you were in there that whole time. It's the only explanation."

Aang looked at us in horror. He knew we were right too. Slowly, he stumbled back and dropped to the ground.

"A hundred years," he said quietly, running a hand over the arrow that was tattoed on his head. "I can't believe it."

"I'm sorry, Aang," Katara said softly, kneeling next to him. "Maybe, somehow, there's a bright side to all this."

"I did get to meet you and Keira" he smiled.

"We are pretty awesome" I smiled back. "Come on" I continued. "Let's get out of here, this place gives me the creeps."

Apparently, Aang wanted to explore the ship a little more. A few rooms later, Katara finally spoke up.

"Aang, we should really get out of here. This place is creepy." I'm glad somebody agreed with me.

It happened in the blink of an eye. We were trapped.

"What's that you said about booby traps?" Aang asked. As soon as he spoke, knobs started turning and steam started coming from the pipes. A part of me was in awe over the fact that this ship could still function after all these years, the other part of me was terrified of what could happen next.

Looking out the window, we saw what I assume is a flare shoot off into the sky.

"Uh-oh."

"We need to find a way out of here," I said. Looking around, I noticed the giant hole int he ceiling. "That'll work" I sighed.

"Hang on tight," Aang told my sister as he lifted her into his arms and airbended them up and out of the hole. Okay, so now _I_ was still trapped, you guys! But before I could really start to freak out, Aang came back and did the same with me, only I was on his back.

Once outside, Aang grabbed Katara once more and brought us back down to the ground. This kid must have some strength in him if he could actually carry the two of us. Granted I think the airbending helped a lot.

Once on the ground, we made a run for the tunnel. As we did, a bad feeling settled in my chest.

* * *

 **AN: So this is my second attempt at an ATLA story. Hopefully, this one will turn out better than the last. Now, I can't promise speedy updates or anything. So for those of you who read this, I will let you know now, the updates will be... sproadic, at best. But hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things sooner or later.**

 **As Always, Leave Love**

 **)0( Iris RainbowWolf )0(**


	2. Chapter 2: The Avatar Returns

**Chapter Two:**

 **The Avatar Returns**

As we started to walk back to the village I couldn't help but think about Aang's offer. Did I want to go to the Northern Water Tribe and find a master? Did I want to leave home? It wasn't like they really needed me here, there were still able bodies who could take over the chores of the camp. And I wasn't much of a fighter. Dad had taught me how to wield a blade and shoot a bow, but I wasn't a soldier.

Neither was Sokka, but at least he was better than me. Honestly, what use did I have in the south pole? My waterbending was going to waste being stuck down here and if we're being honest, I believe my tribe would die out before the war was ended. A morbid thought, I suppose, but it was true.

By the time the three of us made it back home, the rest of the village was outside waiting for us. Sokka and Gran didn't look too happy. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. Aang, Katara and I had gone to a place that was strictly forbidden and put a target on all of our heads.

"Yay! Aang's back" The children cheered when they saw us. Obviously, they had grown attached to the young Airbender. But judging by the looks on Sokka and Gran Gran's face, everything was about to go sideways.

"I knew it!" Was the first thing out of my twins mouth. "You signaled the fire navy with that flare! You're leading them straight to us, aren't you?!"

"Aang didn't do anything" Katara defended.

"She's right, none of this is his fault" I agreed. "It was an accident!"

"Yea" Aang nodded "we were on the ship and there was this booby trap and well... we boobied right into it."

"Keira...Katara..." Gran shook her head. "You shouldn't have gone on that ship, now we could all be in danger."

"Don't blame them" Aang all but pleaded, a sullen look on his face. "I was the one who brought them there. It was my fault."

"Aah!" Sokka exclaimed, causing me to roll my eyes. "The traitor confesses! Warriors away from the enemy!" my brother ordered seven-year-old warriors. "The foreigner is _banished_ from our village.

With sad faces, the children all backed away from Aang, retreating to the sides of their mothers.

"Sokka, you're making a mistake," I told my brother sternly, my arms folded over my chest. He was making a mistake in forcing Aang to leave. Especially if he was who I thought he was.

"No" Sokka glared. "I'm keeping my promise to Dad, I'm keeping the two of you and our village safe from threats like him."

"Aang's not a threat, snow-for-brains! He's an _Airbender!_ They're almost harmless!" I was hoping my slightly older brother would see reason.

"He's not our enemy" Katara spoke up. "Don't you see? Aang's brought us something we haven't had in a long time... fun."

"Fun!?" Sokka scoffed. "We can't fight firebenders with _fun!"_

"You should try it sometime" Aang spoke up.

Not helping buddy.

"Get out of our village. _Now_ " Sokka ordered.

"Grandmother, _please_ " Katara begged Gran. "Don't let Sokka do this."

"Girls, You knew that going on that ship was forbidden," Gran told us, before saying something I never thought she would. "Sokka is right. I think it best if the Airbender leaves."

"Fine!" Katara exploded. "Then I'm banished too!"

"Me too, come on, Aang," I said, turning away from the others and stomping away with Katara hot on my heels.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sokka asked as Katara pulled Aang towards Appa.

"To find a waterbender" I stated and Katara nodded her head in agreement.

"Aang is taking us to the North Pole" Katara added, trying not to cry in front of our brother.

"I am?" Aang asked "Great!" He really had no clue what was going on.

"Keira, Katara!" Sokka called after us. "Would you really choose him over your tribe? Your own family?" he asked.

I wanted to stay strong. I didn't want to say that Sokka had a point. But throwing Aang to the wolves was just plain wrong. Katara and I knew that the boy wasn't a threat, even Gran-Gran knew that. They both just wanted to stay safe and hidden in the snow.

Leaving was something I had always wanted to do. Honestly, as much as I loved my twin brother and the rest of our family, the South Pole hadn't felt like home since mom died. I know I was making this decision out of anger and frustration, but I honestly can say that I even felt a little excited. Traveling to the north pole was a dream come true.

But at Sokka's words, my little sister stopped before she could climb onto Appa's back. Looking over at her, a saw a sad look on her face. Katara wasn't like me, as much as she would complain, this was still her home. She still _felt_ at home here.

"You don't have to come, Katara," I said quietly. As I spoke, Katara's blue eyes started to water.

"I don't want to come between you two and your family," Aang told us before walking over to his flying bison. Katara's feet were still frozen in place. "You should stay too, Keira" he turned to me. "You're family needs you."

Of course, the little monk had a point, but I was too stubborn to admit it. Folding my arms over my chest, I bit my lip and turned away from where Aang stood with Appa. Glaring at my twin, I stomped past the tribe and went straight for the igloo I shared with my family. Once I stripped out of my thick blue parka, I curled up on my bundle of furs and didn't leave for the rest of the night.

I didn't talk to anyone the next morning, not even Katara. I wasn't happy and prone to lash out at just about anyone. So I stayed in my little alcove with Luna and read the few books I had.

It was only when there was a loud cracking noise and lots of fear-filled commotion that I finally stood and went outside.

Only I was met with the sight of a fire navy ship at our gates. With my heart threatening to burst through my rib cage, I looked around for my family. I could see Sokka up on the large snow-wall, ready to defend our village.

"Sokka get out of the way!" I shrieked as the large ship came barreling through our weak defenses. Thankfully the force of the ship hitting the snow caused my twin to do nothing more than slide backward.

When steam started to release from the seams of the ship, I rushed to stand with my brother. I could hear the snow behind me, looking over my shoulder I saw my sister, Gran-Gran and the rest of our village looking on in fear.

I looked back to the ship just in time to jump out of the way of the gang-plank being lowered. That wouldn't have been pretty.

There were a few moments of chilling silence as we waited for the fire benders to come. And then I finally saw them, there were only a small amount, maybe six or seven, of menacing men coming towards us. But the one int he center held the most power. It practically oozed off of him.

I tried not to let the fact that the leader was sort of attractive. In an 'I-Want-To-Punch-You' kind of way.

When Sokka disappeared from my side, I wanted to slap my hand over my face but instead, I shouted at Sokka as he ran up the gangplank with his boomerang and a weird sounding war cry.

"Sokka!" I screamed, fearing for my brothers' life as he tried to rush the soldiers. Only for the leader to swiftly kick the boomerang away before sending Sokka into the pile of snow. I wanted to run and check on my brother, but I was frozen in place as the fire nation soldiers came closer.

When they finally approached us, the leader was standing face to face with me and it was all I had to blush. Now I knew for certain that he was handsome. But he was evil, and that thought made me snap to my senses. I didn't back down, Sokka's mantra of 'Show No Fear' echoed in my head and I mustered up the best death-glare I possibly could. It must have worked because he glared right back and looked over my head at the rest of the village.

"Where are you hiding him" he demanded. I ignored the chills that ran up my spine. When no one answered, he grabbed Gran-Gran and dragged her roughly over to him. "He'd be about this age, master of all the elements." But still, my people were silent.

Mostly because no one really knew what he was talking about. Was this guy looking for the Avatar?

Angrily he shoved Gran-Gran back into the arms of my little sister and kicked out a stream of fire. I just barely lifted my arms and the snow responded, forming a thick wall to protect me.

"I _know_ you are hiding him!"

The next thing I knew, Sokka was grabbing his bladed boomerang and running at the leader of the troops. He was easily dodged and sent flying, I just barely ducked before my twin was tossed over my head. Looking up, I saw Sokka nearly miss a fireball being thrown at his head.

Instinctually Sokka threw the boomerang, and it would have hit his target too, but the enemy just barely dodged at the last second.

"Show no fear," one of Sokka's little warriors said, tossing Sokka his spear. If the firebender was a whole hell of a lot less skilled, then maybe my brother wouldn't have been on the ground a second later. His spear in pieces in the snow.

Biting my lip, I saw something glint int he sun. Sokka's trusty boomerang. I tried not to laugh when the weapon knocked the firebenders helmet to the side.

It all happened so fast. One moment, the benders hands were aflame and I moved to stand in front of Sokka in a defensive stance. I wasn't a skilled bender, but I trust my element with my life.

The next moment, the firebender was being knocked to the ground by an orange and black blur.

All of the children laughed and Aang slid by them on a penguin, covering them with a blast of snow. When the penguin-otter came to a stop, he bucked Aang off of his back and waddled away. I had no clue what to say about the young airbenders return. He seemed to be a master of his element, he stood a chance against the firebenders.

"Hi Katara, Keira. Oh Hey Sokka!" Aang smiled as he sat in front of us.

"Um... Hi, Aang" I was sort of still in shock that he was sitting in front of me right now.

"Thanks for coming" Sokka added, sulking about getting his butt handed to him.

A moment later, Aang hopped up and stood with his staff raised defensively. The second the Fire Nation troops started to surround him, Aang use the air to send a blast of snow left, right and center.

"Looking for me?" the kid asked.

"No. Freaking. Way" I muttered, but my voice was so quiet that I don't think the others heard me.

"You're the Airbender?" Steam started to rise off of the firebender "You're the Avatar!?"

Oh I _so_ knew it!

So the boy we had found in the iceberg was the Avatar. I knew there was something spirit world-y about the boy the second I saw him glowing in the ice. After Aang had confirmed that he was the Avatar, he went with the firebenders in order to protect the village.

While everyone else was straightening up around camp after the small invasion, Katara and I were looking out over the horizon. My sister and I in complete understanding as to what we should do.

"We have to go after him, Sokka" I told my twin who I could hear walking back and forth behind me.

"He saved our tribe, now we have to save him" Katara told him.

"Katara I..." but Katara instantly cut him off.

"Why can't you realize that he's on our side?" she asked, still not looking at our brother. Glancing over to him, I saw Sokka carrying a few bundles to a nearby canoe. "If we don't help him, no one will."

"Katara" I tried to get her attention, but she didn't seem to hear me.

"I know you don't like Aang, but we owe him! An..." but for once, Sokka stopped our little sister short.

"Are you gonna talk all day or are you coming with us?" he asked, pointing to the canoe.

"Get in, we're going to save your boyfriend" I teased, causing Katara to glare from where she now stood next to Sokka.

"He's _not_ my..."Katara tried to deny. But I just shrugged.

"Whatever. I'm saying it now. You two will get married and have cute little babies together" I teased, causing Katara to blush like crazy.

"What are you three doing?" Gran-Gran's voice sounded from behind us, causing a shiver of shock to slide down my spine. Instantly Sokka and I turned and gave her innocent smiles. Well, as innocent as we could manage. "You'll need these" our grandmother finally smiled and held out a roll of blankets for me and my siblings. "You have a long journey ahead of you."

I was in shock.

"It's been so long since I've had hope" I could tell that Gran-Gran was close to tearing up. "But you brought it back to life, my little waterbenders" she smiled, pulling Katara and me into a warm hug. "And you, my brave warrior" Gran turned to Sokka "Be nice to your sisters."

"Yea, Sokka, be nice to your sisters" I grinned, elbowing my twin in the side playfully.

"Okay, Gran" Sokka hugged our grandmother.

"Aang is the Avatar" Gran said. "He is the worlds only chance. You three found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his."

"There's no way we're going to catch a warship with a canoe," Katara said. And then, Appa started walking towards us, obviously missing his friend.

"Bet we could catch up with Appa," I said.

"You two just _loooove_ take me out of my comfort zone, don't you?"

"Go" Sokka grumbled from where he sat on the saddle. "Fly. Soar."

"Please Appa" Katara addressed the bison. "We need your help. _Aang_ needs your help."

"Up. Ascend. Elevate."

"Sokka doesn't believe you can fly" Katara spoke to Appa once again, trying to ignore our brother. "But Keira and I do."

"Didn't Aang use two weird words?" I asked. "Something like yee-ha, hup-hip..um..."

"Yahoo..."Sokka continued. "yip-yip?" was his suggestion.

Suddenly Appa started to rumble, and with a loud groan, the giant beast slapped his tail in the water. As if he had lifted himself onto solid ground, Appa ran across the water and then...

Appa was freakin' _flying!_

"You did it Sokka!" Katara laughed as she looked down at the water.

"He's flying!" Sokka was clearing excited as he stared out at the open sky. " He's flying! He's flying! Keira, he's..."

Raising an eyebrow at my twin, I smirked teasingly at him.

"I mean, _big deal_ , he's flying" but the excitement still shone in his eyes.

I didn't bother to contain my excitement as I scurried over to the edge of the saddle and watched the icebergs pass us by. This was definitely better than a canoe. And I'm sure that Appa appreciates not being in the freezing water, even though he is a million pounds of fur.

Freezing water is freezing water.

I just hope we found the ship before anything bad happened to the little Airbender. The _Avatar_.

Appa was moving faster now that he was in the air, but we were still behind them by a few hours. As Appa navigated the skies, I mentally went over the few waterbending moves that I knew.

It wasn't much, and most of the forms were unpracticed. But I knew that a fight was going to happen, I wasn't naive enough to think the firebenders were going to give up the Avatar that easy.

When the ship came into view, my heart was pounding in my chest and my mouth had gone dry. A fight was happening on the main deck, Aang and the leader of the firebenders. I could see the flames bouncing around in the air. From what I could see, the Airbender was holding his own, but it wouldn't last forever.

"Aang, no!" Katara shouted a moment later. I must have blinked, because the next thing I knew, Aang was falling over the rail and into the water. Katara called his name over and over, but it was no use.

Suddenly, I saw a familiar glow raising up from the depths. Aang spun upwards riding a torrent of water, his eyes and tattoos glowing with his immense powers. It was terrifying and amazing all at the same time. In awe I watched the Airbender use the water around him, his movements calm and fluid. Like a Master Waterbender.

Like the Avatar.

"Did you see what he just _did_?" Katara asked in shock.

"Now _that_ is some waterbending!" Sokka's mouth was agape as he stared at the scene below.

I could honestly say that I was one hundred percent speechless.

But it seemed that Aang's immense power surge could only last so long as he crumbled to the floor. The glow fading from his arrow tattoos. At that moment Appa circled around and landed on the deck of the ship.

"Aang!" Katara and I called out as we slid off of Appa and ran over to our fallen friend. "Are you okay?" Katara asked, lifting the boy into her lap.

"Hey Keira, Hey Katara, Hey Sokka. Thanks for coming" Aang said weakly, his grey orbs staring up at us.

"Well, I couldn't let you have all the glory" Sokka joked.

I was nervous though, we were extremely lucky we weren't attacked the second we landed. We needed to get out of here. And fast.

"I dropped my staff," Aang told us as he tried to sit up.

"I got it," Sokka told him, jumping up and running over to where the airbenders staff had landed.

"Sokka!" I called out when I saw him struggling to pull up the staff. The firebender that Aang had tossed overboard had a tight grip on the other end. Instantly I started to run over to him, only for him to get lucky, the firebenders grip faltered slightly, and Sokka was able to pull the staff away. using the end to poke the bender in the forehead, sending him tumbling over the side once again.

"Ha! That's from the water tribe!" Sokka called over to the other teen. Rolling my eyes, I pulled my twin back over to Appa.

"We need to get out of here before..." I started to say. But it was too late, there were already fire nation soldiers approaching my sister. The next thing I knew, my feet were frozen to the ground. Following the trail of ice, I saw my little sister. I could tell that she had been trying to freeze the soldiers but got me and Sokka instead. "Katara!" I called out, fear starting to creep in my chest.

Turning to face us. Katara repeated the move. This time effectively freezing the fire nation soldiers. Sokka was already starting to hack away at the ice encasing his feet with his boomerang. I was trying to use my bending, but it wasn't _working_. The ice was too thick for me. If I was a _real_ waterbender...

"Hurry up Sokka! Katara called out as she climbed up onto Appa's saddle with Aang.

"I'm just a guy with a boomerang, I didn't ask for all this flying and magic..." And then he was gone.

"Sok..." but the second my mouth opened, a warm hand came down over my mouth and fear gripped me tight.

My siblings didn't spare me a glance as they took off into the sky. Each passing second I hoped that they realized I wasn't with them and that they would turn around to come back. But they weren't.

I was a prisoner of the fire nation.


	3. Chapter 3: Colonel Monkey-Face

**Chapter Three:**

 **Colonel Monkey-Face**

I don't know how long I was kept below deck, but I knew that it was a very long time. My brother, sister, and Aang must have noticed I was gone by now. The room I was in was extremely warm, warmer than sitting next to the nightly bonfire in the south pole. For once I was able to strip off my thick parka and lay back on the thin mattress.

I could feel the rocking waters below the ship, the urge to call the water to me. Just a hunch, but I figured me bending while I was still prisoner would be a very bad idea.

It was hours later when the ship started to move again. I vaguely remember Aang burying the bow of the ship with a blast of snow and ice. The firebenders must have had a hard time not only melting the ice that encased a few of the soldiers but also getting the ship to set sail.

When there was a loud knock on the metal door to the room, I nearly jumped out of my skin. I was too busy feeling the gentle waves and I let myself get lost in the feeling.

"May I come in?" the voice of an older man came as he cracked open the door.

Why was he asking permission? I was the prisoner here.

"Um... I guess?" I really wasn't sure how else I should respond.

"It is always polite to ask permission to enter the bedroom of a young lady" the old man smiled as he walked into the room, closing the door behind him. "I wasn't sure of your tea preferences. So I brought you a wonderful jasmine." He had brought two cups and a pot of wonderful smelling tea with him.

Hesitantly I took the small teacup from the man and sipped it slowly. It was delicious. We didn't really have many different kinds of teas in the South Pole.

"My name is Iroh. But you can call me uncle" the old man... Iroh smiled. I wouldn't call him 'uncle', that was for sure.

"Keira" I nodded. I should be afraid of this man, he was an enemy holding me hostage. But I couldn't help the almost instant feeling of trust that enveloped me. Maybe because he had asked permission to join me, instead of just barging in the way I assumed a captor would.

"I must warn you, Keira," he said with a sigh. "My nephew is on his way to... question you."

"Q-Question?"I stammered. There was only one thing that could mean. Iroh's nephew was going to interrogate me.

"Yes, you see, Zuko believes that his honor rests on capturing your friend. The Avatar." Iroh told me.

I was silent for a while, staring into my cup of warm tea.

"Will he let me go if I tell him?" I asked, my voice quiet and meek. I couldn't tell Zuko where Aang was, I couldn't betray the Avatars friendship like that. But maybe... I knew where Aang was going. Just not when he would be there. Would it be a betrayal if I told Zuko to go north?

"I don't know" Iroh sighed.

I guess that was better than a flat out 'no'. So I quietly sipped my tea in silence or at least tried to, it was really hot and burnt my tongue. Biting my lip, I glanced at Iroh before I used my bending to cool the liquid to a slightly cooler temperature. I don't think Iroh saw me. If he did, he didn't say or do anything about it.

The two of us had finished off the pot of tea before there was another series of knocks on the door.

"Um.. come in?" I said, clearing my throat slightly. I wasn't used to things like this. Not that the people of my tribe didn't have manners but...the tribes' majority was children.

When Zuko came through the door, I shrunk back slightly on instinct. He had been the one to threaten my home, to threaten my friend and family. He had been the one who had grabbed me before I could get myself out of Katara's ice.

"I assume my uncle has told you why I'm here?" he asked me, standing in front of where I sat on the bed. I just nodded. I didn't trust myself to speak. "Do you know where he is?" Zuko asked unkindly. I just shook my head. "Do not lie to me" he growled. an aggressive flame forming in his hands.

"I'm not" I all but squeaked. "I don't know where he is right now. He could be anywhere." Zuko didn't seem to like that answer as he roared and sent the small fireball at the wall behind me, just barely missing my head. "I-I swear! I don't know where Aang and the others are. But I..."

Did I really want to do this? Was my possible freedom better than betraying my friend? But was I betraying Aang?

"North" I decided. "He's going to the north pole."

"Why?" Zuko asked me. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"To find a waterbending master, I guess" I shrugged, hugging my knees to my chest.

"Why not find one in the south pole?" he asked as if he didn't know what had happened.

"Prince Zuko..." Iroh tried to warn his nephew.

"Because there are no waterbending masters left in the south pole to teach him" I narrowed my eyes. "Because your people came into my home and murdered my tribe. My mother."

I could feel the water jerk from underneath the ship, my element reacting to my emotions.

"We will leave you be, now, Keira," Iroh told me softly, moving around his nephew to place a gentle hand on my shoulder. "I will have someone come and bring you a change of clothes and something to eat. You must be starving." All I could do was nod. Really it was still weird that Iroh was as kind and welcoming. "Come, nephew lets go see about the repairs."

And with that, I was left by myself once again.

The clothes that Iroh had sent to my room were comfortable. They weren't all that different from my regular clothes, just more... fire nation-y. My top was now black with a fiery trim, the collar stretching around my shoulders while the sleeves ended in a point at my knuckles. The only issue I had with the top was that it showed too much of my stomach. Black pants were loose around my legs, my water tribe pants were a little tighter, but I didn't mind the looseness of the fire nation pants I had been given.

We had set sail hours ago, and I let the gentle waves soothe me. Instinct told me that it was night-time, so I curled up on the bed and was lulled to sleep by the slight rocking of the ship.

I didn't sleep for that long, however, and the next thing I knew, there was a knocking on the door.

"Come in," I said quietly, barely stifling a yawn. A second later, Iroh was coming into the room carrying a tray with three plates of food. Followed by the prince of the freaking Fire Nation. It had taken a bit for that information to sink in.

"I apologize if we had woken you up," Iroh said sincerely as he set the tray down on the small table in the corner. "I hope you don't mind some dinner company" the old man smiled.

"Company sounds great," I said. I was still wary of the firebenders. Understandably of course. But so far Iroh has been very accommodating.

Quietly, Iroh gave me my plate and a cup of tea before serving Zuko. I couldn't help but giggle at the aggravated look on the prince's face. At his small glare, I bit my lip and lowered my head to the dish of roast duck that Iroh had given me. Suddenly I was nervous, I was having dinner with the crowned freaking prince of the Fire Nation. THE ENEMY!

As Iroh and Zuko started to eat, I nervously picked at the meal in front of me. It was unlike most things we had in the south pole. Our diet mostly consisted of fish, sometimes we would get other stuff, but mostly fish.

"You haven't had roast duck before, have you?" Iroh asked nicely. I just shook my head shyly. "Go on, I'm sure you'll love it!" the old man said happily as he took a large bite of duck.

Iroh was right. The duck was delicious. There were so many flavors that my mouth watered the instant the meat touched my tongue. The Fire Nation may be evil, but they had some good food.

"So, Keira, what do you like to do for fun?" Iroh asked.

"Um.." I swallowed "Read, mostly. There aren't many books in my village, but they're still good" I said. "Other than that there isn't much time for fun."

"Why are you even asking, uncle? The girl is just a prisoner." Zuko finally spoke up.

He was right of course, I was just a prisoner. I was just lucky that Iroh had taken a liking to me.

"Zuko!" Iroh snapped. "Keira has given you the information you wanted, freely I might add. She is our _guest_." The old man sent a chilling glare to his nephew. And that was enough to shut up the prince.

There was some small talk after that while we ate. Though it was mostly Iroh asking me questions and my answering to the best of my abilities. Zuko, on the other hand, just sat there watching the two of us.

For the next day or two, I didn't leave the room. Iroh said that I could go up to the main deck a few times, but I was still nervous about it. The old man made it clear that I was a guest and not a prisoner.

It was the second morning before Iroh came to have breakfast with me, I dressed into the Fire Nation clothes I had been given, along with a thick red cloak, and left the room.

My heart pounded in my chest as I crept through the narrow hall of the ship. No one was around, and I wasn't a captive. But I was still afraid that one of the soldiers would think I was trying to escape.

And honestly, I wasn't. I just wanted the fresh air, to see the ocean and feel the sun on my face.

After about three wrong turns and having to turn around more times than I could count, and walking into two scenes I wish I could wipe from my mind, I finally made it up to the main deck.

Iroh wasn't up here, not that I thought he would be, but I wasn't completely alone either. A couple of the soldiers were walking around, making sure that things topside were going smoothly. It was still early, so everyone was probably still asleep.

Even though the ship was moving, I could see that the bow area was heavily damaged. Silently I cheered for my family and our new friend.

"The girls out of her room!" I heard one of the men call, the next thing I knew, a soldier was running towards me. On pure instinct, I moved my arms up to block my head.

And the water listened, forming a shield made of thick ice. I had been trying to keep my waterbending a secret from the firebenders. Looks like the secret was out. It took only a moment for the firebending soldiers to respond with their respective element. The flames were hot and I was lucky not to have gotten burned. I know for a fact that I didn't bend the water this time. I didn't feel that same energy flow through me.

Somehow the water had responded to my distress and made a wall of water to protect me from the fireballs.

"What is the meaning of this!" Zuko's angry voice bellowed across the deck.

"Th-The girl, she was escaping, Your Highness" the man who had attacked me stammered.

"Keira is my guest" Zuko hissed, as he turned and walked away. The next thing I knew, Iroh was at my side, helping me to my feet before leading me to follow after the banished Prince.

"Uncle, I want the repairs done as soon as possible," Zuko ordered as we docked in a random port. "I don't want to risk losing his trail."

It had been a rough night of questions and answers and I was glad to finally be back on solid ground. We had agreed after I had given Zuko the little information I could, that when we finally located my brother and sister, I could leave with them.

But that still left Aang in danger, no matter what. I had complete faith that the Avatar of all people could escape capture and continue on our journey.

"Oh, you mean the Ava..." Iroh started, but Zuko quickly cut him off.

"Don't mention his name on these docks" the Prince snapped. "Once word gets around that he's alive, every firebender will be out looking for him. I don't need anyone getting in the way."

"Getting in the way of what, Prince Zuko?" a man said, glancing over from my spot behind Iroh, I saw a man wearing red armor, his facial hair was thick, making him resemble a monkey. And he terrified the hell out of me.

"Captain Zhao" Zuko muttered, him and Iroh both moving slightly to shield me from Zhao. I don't even think they realized they moved, at least not Zuko.

"It's actually Commander now." Monkey-Face corrected. "And General Iroh, great hero of our nation. I don't believe I have met your friend." His golden eyes narrowed in my direction.

"This is Rei, she is a friend," Iroh said. I was surprised that Iroh had lied about my name, but I tried not to let it show on my face.

"The Fire Lord's brother and son are welcomed guests anytime, as is their friend," said Zhao. "What brings you to my harbor?" he asked.

"Our ship is being repaired" Iroh informed him, pointing to the heavily damaged bow of the Fire Nation ship.

"That's quite a bit of damage" Zhao commented.

"Yes," Zuko agreed. "You wouldn't believe what happened" the Prince paused for a moment before nudging Iroh. "Uncle, tell Commander Zhao what happened."

"Yes, I will do that..." Iroh said after a moment, pausing to think of a story. "What did we crash or something?" he asked me and Zuko. I hope Zhao didn't see me slap my hand on my forehead.

"Yes!" Zuko covered for his uncle. "Right into an Earth Kingdom ship."

"Really?" Commander Monkey-Face obviously didn't believe the lie. "You must regale me with the thrilling details. Join me for a drink?"

"Sorry, but we have to go" Zuko muttered, reaching back and grabbed me tightly by the wrist.

"Prince Zuko, show Commander Zhao your respect" Iroh stopped us from going any further. "We would love to join you. Do you have any ginseng tea? It's a favorite of mine and our dear friend Rei has never tried it before" the old man walked passed the Commander.

With a growl, Zuko threw his balled fists back, causing flames to spew from his hands. Thankfully he had already let go of my wrist.

* * *

"...And by years end, the Earth Kingdom capital will be under our control. The Fire Lord will finally claim victory in this war." Zhao was telling us.

Even though I was obviously a member of the Water Tribe, the clothing Iroh had given to me definitely made me blend in with the rest of the Fire Nation encampment. As I sat in my chair next to Zuko, my heart pounded in my chest and I willed my hands not to shake as I sipped my tea.

"If my father thinks that the rest of the world will follow him willingly then he is a fool" Zuko spoke. I don't think he meant to speak out loud, honestly.

"Two years at sea have done little to temper your tongue" Zhao commented and he moved to stand in front of the Prince. "So how is your search for the Avatar going?" Zhao taunted, his gaze drifting to me slightly before he turned and smirked at Zuko.

I don't know why, but I felt the urge to smash his monkey face with the teapot. Thankfully, Iroh accidentally knocked over the display of weapons that had been set up in the corner. The distraction allowed me to try and control my emotions before I sent the boiling water at the evil firebender.

"My fault entirely" Iroh apologized with a low bow, slowly walking away from his mess.

"We haven't found him yet" Zuko informed the Commander.

"Did you really expect to?" Zhao asked. "The Avatar died a hundred years ago. Along with the rest of the Airbenders." As Zhao stared at Zuko, I squirmed in my seat and after a moment, Zuko averted his gaze. "Unless you found some evidence that the Avatar's alive?"

"No" Zuko lied. "Nothing."

At some point in time, Zhao had grabbed another chair and sat on the other side of the small table. Thankfully I was on the other side of Zuko, far away from the terrifying firebender. But that didn't stop my heart from pounding fearfully in my chest.

"Prince Zuko" Zhao stood and walked closer to us once more. "The Avatar is the only one who can stop the Fire Nation from winning this war. If you have an ounce of loyalty left, you will tell me what you've found." He was in Zuko's face now, causing the younger man to avert his gaze.

"I haven't found anything" Zuko denied. "It's like you said. the Avatar probably died a long time ago." At that Zuko stood and took my hand. "Come on, Uncle, we're going," he told Iroh, walking us to the front of the war tent.

Only for our path to be barred by the soldiers standing guard at the entrance, while another walked passed us towards Zhao. My heart hammered in my chest but I tried my best to not look terrified. Because honestly, if it wasn't for Zuko's hand on mine, I would be shaking. Behind Zhao I could see my discarded teacup shaking, the water reacting to my distress.

Just like before, I didn't feel the pull of my bending. The water was acting on its own. I had to concentrate really really hard and will the water to just stop.

"Commander Zhao," the soldier spoke as he walked to Commander Monkey-Face. "We interrogated the crew as you instructed. They confirmed Prince Zuko had the Avatar in custody. But let him escape. The girl had been the Prince's prisoner until just a few days ago."

"Now, remind me" Zhao spoke as he walked over to us, sending tendrils of heart-stopping fear down my spine. "How exactly was your ship damaged?" With that, the firebender gripped our shoulders and roughly led us back to the chairs.

Then he was told everything that had happened at the south pole. Everything from the flare to Zuko defending me on the deck of the ship. For some reason, however, there was no mention of my water bending.

"So a twelve-year-old boy bested you and your firebenders. You're even more pathetic than I thought."

"I underestimated him once, I will not let it happen again" Zuko defended.

"No, it will not" Monkey-Face countered. "Because you won't have a second chance."

"Commander Zhao, I've been hunting the Avatar for two years and I..." Zuko was cut off by a lash of fire being sent in our direction. I couldn't help the small squeak that came out of my mouth.

"You have failed" Zhao growled. "Capturing the Avatar is too important to leave in a teenagers hands. He's mine now."

At that, Zuko lunged from his seat. I was surprised that flames didn't dance from his hands as he went. Before he could get close to Zhao, however, the prince was restrained by two of the Fire Nation soldiers.

"Keep them here," Zhao told the men before walking away. Angrily, Zuko kicked the table, causing the flimsy contraption to shatter as it fell to the ground.

"Can we get some more tea, please?" Iroh asked, causing me to drop my head into my hands.

We were so dead.

It was maybe about a half an hour before Zhao came back into the tent.

"My search party is ready" he announced and I was unsure if he was telling us, or the rest of the soldiers in the tent. "Once I am out to sea, my guards will escort you, and your guest, back to your ship and you will be free to go."

"Why?" Zuko asked from beside me. His arms were folded almost petulantly over his armored chest and his golden eyes were narrowed. "Are you worried I'm going to try and stop you?"

"You? Stop me?" Zhao laughed deeply, making him look more like a monkey-faced creep. "Impossible."

"Don't underestimate me, Zhao" Zuko was on his feet in a second, his voice angry. "I will capture the Avatar before you" he declared.

"Prince Zuko, that's enough" Iroh warned, standing as well.

"You can't compete with me" Zhao chuckled. "I have hundreds of warships at my command. And you? You're just a banished prince. No home, no allies. You're own father doesn't even want you."

"You're wrong!" Zuko denied. "Once I deliver the Avatar to my father, he will welcome me home with honor. And restore my rightful place on the throne."

"If your father really wanted you home, he would have let you return by now. Avatar or no Avatar" Zhao told him.

I hated to agree with the evil firebender. But he did have a point. I didn't really know the whole story about why Zuko was chasing a being once thought long dead. I had to assume, though, that if the Fire Lord really wanted his child home then he would have sent Zuko on a more... do-able mission.

"But in his eyes, you are a failure" Zhao continued. I didn't agree with that. "And a disgrace to the Fire Nation."

"That's not true!" Zuko stepped forward angrily.

"You have the scar to prove it."

Then Zuko was nose to nose with Commander Zhao. Anger rolling off of the prince in waves. A small squeak came from my throat, but I don't think anyone other than Iroh heard me though. As if he knew I was terrified, the old firebender sent me a soothing look. It didn't help, not really.

"Maybe you'd like one to match!" Zuko growled loudly and I couldn't help but jump in my seat. Even Iroh tensed.

"Is that a challenge?" Zhao asked.

"An Agni Kai, at sundown" Zuko nodded his voice calmer.

"Very well." Zhao agreed. "It's a shame your father won't be here to watch me humiliate you" with that the Commander looked over his shoulder at the three of us. "I suppose your uncle will do."

"Prince Zuko, have you forgotten the last time you dueled a master?" Iroh asked his nephew as soon as Zhao left the tent. Now I don't know what an Agni Kai is, but it doesn't sound good.

"I will never forget."

We were allowed back on the ship shortly after that and I was sitting in my room, waiting for sunset. I didn't need a window to know when the moon was about to rise. There was something Gran-Gran had once told me. Firebenders rise with the sun, and waterbenders rose with the moon.

A waterbenders powers were given to them by the moon and water spirits, Tui and La respectfully. So while the firebenders were strong during the day, us waterbenders gained more power at night when the moon was hanging high in the sky.

So, I sat cross-legged on the floor with my eyes closed as I focused on my breathing. I wasn't normally one to meditate, but it was the only thing that could calm the immense fear that had crippled me earlier today. I lived in the south freaking pole, there wasn't much else that could scare me, and there are a lot of things that want to eat you in the south pole.

There was a kid in our village who thought it would be a good idea to anger the Dolphin Piranha once. That kid was Sokka. The idiot still had a scar on his left foot from where one of the evil little fish bit him.

Normally I had a healthy amount of fear, but Zhao terrified me in ways I didn't even know were possible. I didn't want to be afraid, so I meditated hoping that it would help. And it did... sort of. I was still afraid, there was no getting rid of that, it just wasn't as bad.

When I heard the calming goodbye of the sun, my eyes opened and I knew it was time to head up to the main deck. I didn't really want to see the firefight, but at the same time, I knew that I had to be up there.

Letting out a breath, I tied off the end of my braided pigtail and grabbed my red Fire Nation cloak. It was time.

The sun was casting an orange glow over the streets as I walked side by side with Iroh. From what I understood, Zuko had already been escorted to where the Agni Kai was being held. Neither I or Iroh spoke the entire way, choosing instead to walk in a solemn silence.

There wasn't anyone else in the courtyard when we arrived. Just Zuko, Zhao and a couple of guards. The opponents were facing away from each other in preparation for the fight.

"Remember your firebending basics, Prince Zuko. They are your greatest weapons."

"I refuse to let him win" Zuko spoke as he stood to face Zhao, the red silk falling from his shoulders as he did. I didn't allow myself to marvel at the physique Zuko had maintained. Even though it was impressive and caused heat to rise up in my cheeks.

"This will be over quickly" Zhao threatened, standing as well. His dark power caused a fear-filled shiver to run down my spine. But instead of letting it cripple me like before, I looked to the horizon and waited for the moon to edge its way into view. Hoping to draw strength from the first waterbender.

When the going above the courtyard sounding, both firebenders took their stance. Waiting for the first strike, which came from Zuko. I watched silently as Zuko punched a ball of fire towards Zhao, only for it to be dodged and extinguished.

Zuko had taken the offense while the older firebender dodged every blast of fire. I don't even think the Commander sent an attack at all. If Zuko was going up against any other opponent, I think his aggressive strategy would have worked. But Zhao was Commander for a reason and he obviously has the power to back it up.

"Come on, Zuko" I whispered, biting my lip as Zhao sent a wave of flames towards the Prince. But thankfully Zuko was able to dissolve the flames before they did him any damage. As he did, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"Basics Zuko!" Iroh shouted, "Break his root!"

Zuko then took the defense and waited for his moment. I watched as he blocked each thrust of fire Zhao sent his way. But with each shot of fire Zhao move his feet the same way, thrusting forward with his left and anchoring with his right. I don't know very little about fighting, as a woman I wasn't really allowed to sit in on warrior training, but I knew that Zhao's movements would give Zuko the opening he needed.

But before the banished prince got the chance, he was shoved backward by an extremely powerful blast of fire. Zhao was on him a moment later, his fist poised for another attack. For the final attack.

My heart beat frantically against my rib cage. I didn't like Zuko. I didn't trust him, but that didn't mean I wanted him to die.

But just before the flame hit, Zuko reacted and shifted out of the way. Using what looked like a complicated maneuver, Zuko spin and kicked his legs out. That split second was all it took for Zuko to gain the upper hand.

Biting my lip I watched in awe as Zuko smiled and sent small bursts of fire from his feet. Zhao's legs wobbled as he tried dodging Zuko's assault. Iroh and I both smiled as Zuko kicked out a large kick of fire, furthering his status in the fight. Just one more burst and Zhao was rolling to the ground.

When Zuko approached Zhao my breath caught in my throat. An Agni Kai was a fight to the death and Zuko was just about to deliver the final blow.

"Do it!" I heard Zhao coax. Without thought, Zuko sent a fireball straight for Zhao's head, but it missed. "That's it?" Zhao asked, "Your father raised a coward."

"Next time you get in my way, I promise, I won't hold back" was Zuko's retort.

Attacking someone while their back was turned is probably one of the most dishonorable things a person could do. It was also Zhao's next move. If it wasn't for Iroh's quick reflexes, Zuko would have had a blistering red burn on his back.

"No prince Zuko!" Iroh told his nephew, moving to stand in front of him. Just as he did, I rushed over to them. "Do not taint your victory."

"You won, Prince Zuko" I finally spoke. "Don't let an _ape_ like him take that from you."

I still hated Zuko, but I hated Zhao more.

"So this is how the great Commander Zhao acts in defeat?" Iroh asked. "Disgraceful. Even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you." I have a feeling that there was a story, a reason behind Irohs words. "Thanks again for the tea. It was delicious," Iroh added before leading us away.

"Did you really mean that uncle?" Zuko asked quietly as we left the courtyard.

"Of course" Iroh smiled. "I told you ginseng tea was my favorite."

I couldn't help the laugh that escaped as we walked back to the ship.


	4. Chapter 4: Kyoshi Island

**Chapter Four:**

 **Kyoshi Island**

It had been a few days since Zuko's victory over Zhao. The very next day, I asked Iroh if there was a library on the ship. And there was, but it seemed like Iroh knew what it was that I _really_ wanted to read. The next night he brought me a water bending scroll and a book of water tribe legends. Why Iroh water tribe literature, I had no idea. But I appreciated it none the less.

Over the next few days, I would spend more and more time out on the deck. Most of the time I was chatting with Iroh while he taught me pai sho, or, I was practicing my bending. The whole ordeal with Zhao had terrified me beyond belief. I had honestly never felt that much fear before, and I never wanted to feel it again. My bending was weak from disuse, so the scroll helped.

So did my evening meditation sessions under the moon. I could feel the connection to my element growing. And as strong as I had been feeling, there was still this pit inside of me. I missed my little sister and my idiot twin.

It was over a meal of grilled fish that we got the news. The Avatar was on Kyoshi Island. My _family_ was just beyond the shore.

"Uncle, ready the rhinos. He's not going to get away from me this time" Zuko told Iroh as he started to walk out of the room.

"Are you going to finish that?" Iroh asked after a moment, motioning to Zuko's fish.

"I was going to save it for later" Zuko snapped, grabbing the plate and taking it with him.

Iroh and I sat for a little while longer. We finished the rest of our tea in a shared calm, yet awkward silence.

"So," Iroh cleared his throat. "the Avatar is on Kyoshi Island."

"It appears that way" I nodded, keeping my head down.

"I will miss our games," Iroh said warmly, causing me to look up in shock. Was he... was he letting me go?

"W-what?" I stammered.

"You have always had the freedom to leave, my dear" the old man smiled. "Just never the opportunity."

He was right of course. The last time I had been even close to allowed off of the ship, we had run into Zhao. After that, I had always stayed on the ship either in my room or on deck practicing my waterbending.

"I'll miss you" was all I could say. And I meant it too. Iroh had been nothing but warm-hearted and nurturing. The old man had been a good friend to me these past few days.

Iroh and I delegated shortly as to how I would go about leaving. He knew as well as I did that Zuko wouldn't willingly let me go just so I could help the Avatar. The only plan that really made sense was sneak out while Zuko went into the village to find Aang.

So while Iroh went and readied the komodo rhinos for his nephew, I went back to my room. Along with my normal water tribe clothing, I put the water bending scroll and book of water tribe legends Iroh had given me in the small bag I had been given. I didn't have many belongings and I was able to hide the bag underneath the thick red Fire Nation cloak. For some reason, I couldn't part with the clothes Iroh had gotten for me.

Then I waited for Zuko and the others to leave. Iroh said he would come and get me the moment the coast was clear. So I stayed in my room until I heard the familiar knock on the steel door. When it finally came, I fastened my small bag to my back and covered it with my cloak.

"Do you have everything?" Iroh asked as soon as I opened the door.

"Yes," I nodded.

"Here, some bread and tea for your travels. And a new sleeping bag as well. "

"Iroh..." I trailed off.

"Are you sure you will be warm enough? the old man asked.

"Iroh..."

"Maybe I should find you a thicker blanket..."

"Iroh!" That finally got his attention. "I'll be okay," I told him, giving the old firebender a warm look. He was the only thing I would truly miss about being on this ship.

"I'm going to miss you, _Princess_ Keira of the Southern Water Tribe."

"How..." I asked. Technically, my brother, sister and I _were_ royalty. Our father was chief of the whole tribe. But how did Iroh know?

"I have my ways" Iroh amber-gold eyes glinted knowingly.

"I'm going to miss you too, Uncle Iroh."

Soon enough I was running as fast as I could towards the village. I couldn't risk getting captured again, so I kept to the trees as much as possible. Hopefully, I could find out where my family and friend were staying and hide out there.

Zuko and his soldiers weren't too far ahead. I did my best to steer clear of them as Zuko called out, trying to coax Aang out of where ever he was hiding.

I watched from the tree line as the Fire Nation soldiers stalked forward. From where I was crouched, I couldn't see any villagers. But there _was_ some movement. The next thing I knew, the soldiers were ambushed by a small group of figures dressed in green robes.

The islands fighters easily overpowered the fire benders, except for the prince. I watched as the person, who seemed to be the leader, charged forward. Only for them to be taken out by the tail of the Komodo rhino. Thankfully, just as soon as Zuko was about to shoot a blast of fire at the warrior, another one came out of nowhere and put out the flames with ... a _fan_?

"I guess trainings over" I heard the warrior say as Zuko was thrown off of the rhino. The warriors' voice reminded me a lot of my brother. But this fighter had more talent than Sokka. Plus they were wearing a _dress_ , there's no way it was him.

A part of me wanted to edge forward in order to get a better view. But I wasn't a fighter, yet, and it was probably safer for me and everyone else to stay back and observe. Not that I could see much.

"Nice try, Avatar!" Zuko called out the second all of the green-clad warriors were on their backs. "But these _little girls_ can't save you."

"Hey!" I heard Aang's voice call out. "Over here!" But I couldn't see him from where I was.

What I could see, however, was fire. The thatched rooves were aflame and I could hear the slight crackle from where I was. Maybe I could just...

Quietly I dropped my bags on the ground and removed my cloak. There was snow literally everywhere, part of the water benders domain of power. I didn't have much practice but I was hoping I could bend the snow and snuff out as much of the fire as I could without getting caught.

But before I could act, I saw Aang start to fly away with his glider. Biting my lip, I picked my bags and cloak back up and ran as fast as I could. Following Aang as he flew. When he finally stopped and landed next to my sister. Just a little closer and I was home free.

"Wait!" I called out as I saw my family climb onto Appa. Running up the bisons tail I collapsed onto the saddled, gasping for air. "I haven't...run that.. fast... since Sokka pegged that tiger seal with a snowball" I gasped for air.

"Keira!" Katara smiled, jumping on top of me with a hug. "I'm _sooo_ sorry... we didn't mean.. we didn't _know_...and then it was too late and..." my little sister stumbled over her words.

"It's okay," I told her as we lifted off into the air. "So I'm guessing Sokka did something idiotic?" I asked, motioning to my twin's attire.

" _Aww, man_!"


	5. Chapter 5: The King of Omashu

**Chapter Five**

 **The King Of Omashu**

The next week with my family was pretty uneventful. As we flew over the water I told Aang, Katara, and Sokka everything that had happened over the past few days. Surprisingly they were only a _little_ mad that I told Zuko that we were going to the north pole. Thankfully they understood my reasoning.

In return, Katara told me all about their trip to Aang's home in the Southern Air Temple. All the way up to why they had gone to Kyoshi Island in the first place. I was unsurprised to hear how Sokka's sexism had landed in a dress and a painted face. Sometimes I can't believe I share blood with Sokka.

I left out the dinners I would share with Iroh and the Prince. Or how I would play pai sho and practice my bending. I didn't tell them about Zuko defending me in front of his men, or Zhao. I didn't tell them _anything_ about what happened with Zhao.

When we weren't flying, we were walking. Iroh had given me enough food to last us a few days if we rationed. We had run out of food yesterday. Thankfully we were only a few hours away from our destination.

The city of Omashu.

"I used to always come here to visit my friend Bumi," Aang told us as we approached the outskirts of the city.

"Wow!" Katara's eyes were wide "We don't have cities like this in the south pole."

"They have buildings here that don't _melt_ " Sokka was in awe.

"It... It's _amazing_ " I breathed, looking over the pyramid-style buildings. If earthbending could do all of this. "If earthbending could do this..." I said. "Do you think we could do the same with waterbending?" I asked Katara.

"Maybe..." was my little sisters' response. "If the bender was powerful enough I think it's possible."

"Well let's go slowpokes!" Aang smiled. "The real fun is inside the city!" he told us before jumping into the air and running down the hill.

"Wait Aang!" Katara called out, effectively stopping the young Avatar. "It could be dangerous if people find out you're the Avatar."

"You need a disguise" Sokka added.

"Uh-Oh," I muttered. Not that he would ever admit it, but my twin _loved_ disguises.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Aang asked. "Grow a mustache?"

So that's what we did. We gathered all of the loose fur that came off of Appa and managed to make a fake mustache and large wig for Aang. He looked ridiculous, but it did hide his identity.

"So itchy" Aang groaned, scratching his head. "How do you live in this stuff!?" he asked the bison. Appa just huffed at the airbender.

"Now you look just like my grandpa" Sokka commented, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Technically Aang _is_ 112 years old," Katara told our brother.

"Let's get skipping young whippersnappers. The big city awaits!" Aang said in his best old man voice, using his airbending staff as a cane. He certainly was selling the part of little old man.

We had to leave Appa behind. Toting a ten-ton flying bison would not do well to hide Aang's identity. So the four of us walked along the large earthbender-made canyon

"You guys are going to love Omashu, "Aang told us as we got closer to the gates of the city. "The people here are the friendliest in the world."

"Rotten cabbages! What kind of slum to you think this is!?" We heard one of the guards yell at the merchant standing between us and the guards. And then, the guard destroyed the cabbages and earthbended the cart over the wall.

"No my cabbages!" the merchant cried as he looked over the edge of the canyon where the rest of his stock was thrown.

"Just keep smiling" Aang muttered as we started moving towards the guards, Aang keeping up his old man front as we walked.

Suddenly a large boulder was being dangled over the boy's head. But Aang didn't seem to be phased by it.

"State your business" the guard growled, causing Aang to rush towards the man, jabbing his finger into his chest.

"My business is my business young man, and none of yours," Aang said in an aggressive old man voice and I had to bite my lip to stop from laughing. "Why I got half a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside!"

"Settle down, old timer," the guard said, shock written on his face. "Just tell me where you are."

"Names Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis the third," he said. "And these are my grandkids..."

"Hi" Katara smiled as the two of walked forwards. "June Pippinpaddleopsicopolis."

"Rei Pippinpaddleopsicopolis. Nice to meet you" I introduced, using the same alias Iroh had given me when we first met Zhao.

"You seem like responsible young ladies" the guard pointing to Katara and me. "See that your grandfather stays out of trouble. Enjoy Omashu."

"We will" I smiled as the guards let us by. I just prayed to the spirits that my twin didn't do anything idiotic.

"Wait a minute!" one of the men spoke up, stopping Sokka with a hand on his shoulder. "You're a strong young boy. Show some respect for the elderly and carry your grandfathers' bag."

"Good idea!" Aang smiled and he tossed the light bag at my brother.

And then, using earthbending, the gates were opened for us.

"Whoah," I gasped as we looked over the city. There was so much life here, it was so unlike anything I had ever seen.

"This is the Omashu delivery system," Aang told us as he showed us the cutes. "Miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Earthbending brings the packages up, and gravity brings them down."

"Great, so they get their mail on time" Sokka rolled his eyes.

"They do get their mail on time," Aang said enthusiastically "But my friend Bumi found a better use of the chutes" the young Avatar had a mischievous look on his face.

It took us a while to get to the very top of the mail chute. As we climbed, Aang told us about his friend Bumi. How the two young boys would ride the chutes for hours on end.

"This seemed like a good idea at first," Katara said nervously. "But now I'm starting to have second thoughts..." but her last word trailed as the bin we were in tipped forwards and we were sent careening downwards.

It was exhilarating. Yet absolutely life-threateningly terrifying at the same time. I couldn't help but let out a loud shriek as our chute merged with the one directly next to us, causing extremely pointy spears to come dangerously close to impaling my twin. When Sokka ducked, I was met with their sharp edges. With a squeak, I ducked as well. Thankfully they couldn't really get any closer to us.

"I'm on it!" Aang called out before he started rocking our bin, gaining enough momentum to send us over the edge of the chute. That was one way to get away from the spears.

I kept my eyes closed, expecting the worst. But somehow we were lucky and other than a few bruises we were fine.

"Aang do something!" Katara shrieked when we landed further down the same chute. "Use your airbending!"

"Yea, good idea! That will make us go even faster!" the young Avatar cheered.

"I don't think that what she meant Aang!" I cried as Aang leaned forward and swept his arms out, causing us to slide down the chute at break-neck speeds. The air was ringing in my ears and the cold wind bit at my face.

And once again we were flying over the ledge. I kept my watering eyes closed once more as we hit several roof tops and burst through a window or two.

When we finally crash landed, it was into a cabbage cart belonging to the same merchant as before. I was not surpirsed when we were arrested.

My heart was thumping loudly in my chest as we were brought before the king of Omashu. Though I didn't have the same brain splitting fear as I did when I was first held captive by Zuko. This fear was more like the time I had accidentally broke dad's best spear and had to face my punishment.

"Your Majesty" the soldier addressed the king. "These juveniles were arrested for vandalism, tresspassing, traveling under false pretenses and malicious destruction of cabbages."

"Of with their heads!" The merchant called out from the side. "One for each head of cabbage."

I couldn't contain my eye roll. They were just cabbages.

"Only the king can pass judgement" the guard scolded the man. "What is your judgement, sire?" he asked the decrepit old man on the thrown.

"Throw them..." the King trailed as he looked over the four of us. " A feast!"

A...A _what?_

* * *

True to his order, the crazy King of Omashu presented his with a large spread of food. Delicacies that my siblings and I weren't used too. Some foods I had had the pleasure of enjoying during my brief stay on Prince Zuko's ship.

"The people in my city have gotten fat from too many feasts," the King told us. "I hope you like your chicken without any skin" he added, picking up the drumstick from Aang's plate.

"Thanks, but... I don't eat meat" the Avatar told the old man.

"How about you?" the King asked my twin. "I bet _you_ like meat" he added, before all but shoving the drumstick into Sokka's mouth.

"Is it just me or is this guys crown a little... _crooked_.?" Katara asked lowly as the King walked to the other side of the table to take his seat in the large chair.

"So tell me young bald one...where are you from?"

"I'm from... Kangaroo Island" Aang lied nervously. I had to stop my self from rolling my eyes.

"Kangaroo Island, eh?" he obviously didn't believe the monks lie either. "I hear that place is really _hopping_!"

The King's joke was terrible, but I still chuckled politely. He was the _King_ after all. My twin, however, laughed loudly.

"What?" Sokka asked us when my looked at him after his outburst. "It was funny..."

"Well," said the King as he fake yawned, stretching his arms wide "all these good jokes have made me tired. Guess it's time to hit the hay" he added, standing. He was haunched over and it looked like he was reaching into the sleeve of his heavy robe. The next thing I knew, the old man was hurling a drumstick in Aang's direction, I couldn't help but jump at the attacks suddenness.

On instinct, Aang used his Airbending to stop the trajectory of the drumstick. Reavealing himself to be not only the last Airbender, but the Avatar as well.

I knew that the King wouldn't sell us out to the Fire Nation, but there was still that fleeting fear that somehow my brother, sister, Aang and I would end up prisoners of a Fire Navy ship.

"There's an Airbender in our presence" the old King smiled. "And not just _any_ Airbender, the _Avatar_."

In an an instant, Aang dropped the drum stick back down onto his plate. Hiding his hands behind his back and acting as if he _didn't_ just make food float in mid air infront of him.

* * *

After we had finished eating, the King ordered his men to bring us to a refurbished chamber. Though he didn't quite word it like that. This old man was... random. Yea random was a good word to describe this old man.

Or crazy. Crazy works too.

The crazy King had decided that Aang would complete a series of challenges in the morning. I don't know why, I doubt even the King himself knew why.

The room could only be accessed using earth bending, it _was_ a prison cell after all. Except it was _nice_. There were beautiful glowing crystals illuminating the room. Four beds were set up facing each other with a copper pot in the center. I think it might have been for incense, I remember Iroh had them in his room too.

"He _did_ say it was newly refurbished" Aang as Momo jumped from his shoulders and climbed up the silk drapery.

"Nice or not, we're still prisoners" I muttered, folding my arms over my chest.

"I wonder what the challenges are going to be" he looked so worried. Avatar or not, he's still a 12 year old boy. No one could blame him for being scared.

"We're not sticking around to find out," Katara said with finality. Instantly my gaze shifted to where the door had been. Only now it was a solid rock wall anc it could only be dropped with earthbending. "There's gotta be some way out of here."

"The air vents!" Aang exclaimed, pointing to the extremely small whole in the wall.

"If you think that we're going to fit through there, you're crazier than that king," I said, while Sokka nodded in agreement.

" _We_ can't," said the Avatar. "But _Momo_ can" he added, pointing towards his flying lemur buddy who was laying on the nearest bed, lazily licking a half eaten apple. His furry little gut stuffed from the feast. "Momo, I need you to find Appa and bust us out of here," Aang said as he approached the engourged critter. Not even a minute later, Aang was trying to shove poor little Momo through the even littler air vent. "Go on, boy! Get Appa!" Aang quit trying a few minutes later when it was finally obvious that not even the lemur could fit.

"Eh, how was Appa going to save us anyway?" Sokka shrugged from the bed next to mine.

"Appa is a ten ton flying fluff monster, I'm sure he could figure it out, Sokka," I said, rolling my eyes at my twin.

"There's no point in arguing" Katara intervened, going over to the bed between Aang and Sokka's, "Let's get some rest. Looks like you'll need it for tomorrow."

It took some tossing and turning, but soon enough we all fell into a deep sleep. So deep, infact, that Aang didn't even wake when the rock wall dropped and the guards took me and my siblings. The only things stopping us from calling out to wake the sleeping Avatar was the stone that the earthbenders sent to cover our mouths. I was getting really sick of being a prisoner.

When we saw Aang the next morning, he was demanding that we be returned to him, that we were leaving. But the crazy King seemed to have though of that as he had the guards that were holding us shove rings made out of a type of crystal on to our fingers. None to kindly, I might add and the second the guard let go, the ring tightened almost painfully on my finger as it began to glow. The three of us instantly tried pulling on the rings, but they wouldn't budge.

"Those delightful rings are made out of pure jennamite," said the King. "Also known as creeping crystal. Its a crystal that grows remarkably fast. By night fall your friends will be completely covered in it." His face was sinister, before softening quickly. "Terrible thing, really. I can stop it, but _only_ if you cooperate."

As he spoke, the ring on my finger slowly started to grow up to my knuckle. Looking at my siblings, I could see that their jennamite rings were doing the same thing. "I'll do what you want," Aang said seriously once he looked over at my and Katara's worried faces.

Not even twenty minutes later we were in a cave and the creeping crystal had already covered most of my arm. Looking over the crazy kings shoulder. On the other side of the cave was a waterfall, and I could just barely see the ladder in the middle. I coudl also feel the water humming, calling to me. But i chose to ignore it, I don't think me trying to bend the water would really work out for us in the long run.

"It seems I've lost my lunch box key and I'm hungry" the King called out to Aang who was on the ledge opposite us. So he wanted Aang to scale the ladder, with water pounding down on him, just for a little gold key.

It took Aang a few tries, naturally. But finally, he was able to get the key by breaking off a stalagmite and using his airbending to break the long chain.

From the cave, we made our way to a sunken and enclosed room. By now, the crystal had grown to cover our torso's as we watched Aang run around the arena-like room. But with the second task over with, we were closer to getting the earthbenders to release us. Honestly, I never thought I would prefer being Prince Zuko's prisoner, but here I was. Aangs next challenge was a duel, the crazy King had even been allowed to choose his own opponent.

Thinking he was slick, Aang chose to fight the old King. I didn't see what had happened though, because the crystal had covered everything except for a small rectangle where my mouth was. So I could breathe, and I could even hear a little of what was going on. I could hear the fighting and the chaos, but I couldn't really make out any words that might have been spoken between Aang and the King.

"Now you must answer one question" I finally heard the muffled voice of the King. The fight must have finished and the two must be closer now.

"That's not fair!" Aang yelled. "You said you would release my friends if I finished you tests."

"Oh but whats the point of tests if you don't learn anything?" said the old earthbender. "Answer the question and I will set your friends free." He paused for a moment before asking. "What...is my name? From the looks of your friends, I'd say you only have a few minutes. "

"Keira, are you okay?" Aang asked, which really just told me that I was much worse off than my siblings.

"Yea, Aang, I'm okay...for now," I told him.

"How am I supposed to know his name?"

"Think about the challenges," Katara told him.

"Yea, they might be some kind of riddle."

We were only thinking for maybe a minute before Sokka spoke up. "I got it!" he said. "He's an earthbender right? Rocky! You know, because of all the rocks."

If I could move my arms, then I would have smacked my brother. Maybe it would knock out the stupid. "Yea we're gunna keep trying, but thats a good start," I said, rolling my eyes, even though they couldn't see me. As Aang started running down the list of tests, I bit my lip in thought. None of it made sense. There was no pattern to the kings challenges. No rhyme or reason, just madness.

I was only a little suprised when the Avatar stated: "I know his name." And then he went to where I assumed the king was standaing. "I solved the question the same way I solved the challenges," said the Avatars mffled voice. "As you said along time ago, I had to open my mind you the possiblities. Bumi, you're a made genius."

"Oh Aang, it's good to see you. You haven't changed a bit...literally."

"Hey, guys" I called out. "Yea this is great and all but... a little help?"

Seconds later, I was free. I even had to blink my eyes a little bit against the dim light. "Jennamite is made of rock candy," King Bumi told us as he bit into the crystal. "Delicious!" Curious, I picked up a peice of the candy. He wasn't wrong, it was really good. A second later, I was picking up a couple of peices and putting them in my pockets for later. The 'Creeping Crystal' was as scary now that I knew it was not only edible, but tasty as well.

Soon after, the room gained an air of seriousness as Bumi turned to Aang. The wold Aang knew was gone, and it was now the duty of the Avatar to return balance and order to the world. He needed to confront, and defeat Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko's father and Irohs brother. But Aang still had so much to learn, he needed to learn and master the bending skills of the four elements. Only as a fully recognized Avatar could Aang hop to win. Thankfully he had my siblings and I to help him along the way.


	6. Chapter 6: Prisoners of War

**Chapter Six**

 **Prisoners of War**

We had been wandering for days. But thankfully, we had stopped for the night to get some well-deserved rest. Though my sister and I utilized the nearby stream as quickly as possible. Katara and I had even gotten into a fun sparring match as she showed me a few of the moves she had figured out while I had been a prisoner of the Fire Nation Prince. I was really surprised that she didn't get huffy when I showed her the foot placement and arm movements that I found worked the best for me. Nor did she get mad when my own techniques worked better than the ones she had been practicing.

When the others finally were asleep for the night, I took off my boots and went into the river. I had a theory, and I wanted to see if I could do it. First I started with the simple 'push and pull' with the water, creating small waves and sending them to the opposite side of the river. Next, I pulled a bubble, much like I did when I caught fish back home. Finally was the part I had been wanting to try.

I wanted to see if I could change the form of the water. To change it from simple water, to steam then to ice.

Slowly, I stretched and pulled the bubble before hardening it in midair. I tried to concentrate, to soften the ice to the point of steam, but it didn't work. Instead, my little ball of ice fell with a 'plop' back into the river. With a frown, I tried again, this time I turned the ball of water to steam first and tried to freeze it before it dissipated. But I just wasn't quick enough. Discouragement wasn't something I allowed myself to feel, after all, I had successfully turned water into both steam and ice. Honestly, I would call that a win.

As I sat on the riverbank drying off, I couldn't help but stare up at the moon. Ever since I could remember, I was the only one who would all but beg Gran-Gran for a story; I was the only one who truly _loved_ not just the legends of my tribe, but the legends from around the world. Sure, Katara listened to them more than our brother, but she had never sought out Gran-Gran begging for a story by the fire. One of our favorites, naturally, was about how our people had first learned how to waterbend from the moon. That was one of the reasons Katara and I would practice at night back home.

Gazing at the sky, I gasped when I saw what I could only describe as a giant white koi fish with a black spot on its head. Rubbing my eyes quickly, I looked back to the moon only to see the koi gone. I must have been so tired that I was seeing things. With a sigh, I gathered my boots and thick parka before heading back to our campsite.

* * *

We stayed at our small campsite for most of the next day, wanting to start flying after dinner. While we waited for Sokka to get back with food, Katara and I slowly packed up our campsite while we waited for our brother,

"Great, you're back!" I heard Aang say enthusiastically, following his gaze I saw Sokka approaching with a bag I hoped had food in it. "What's for dinner?" asked the airbender.

"We've got a few options," Sokka told us as he dug into his bag. "First, round nuts. And some kind of oval shaped nuts? And some rock-shaped nuts, that might just be rocks" he added, throwing the 'nut' that was obviously a rock towards Momo. "Dig in!"

"Seriously, Sokka, what else you got?" I asked, untying my messy braided pigtail so that it could be re-done before we left. From beside me, Momo cooed and sniffed what he hoped was a treat before taking the rock-shaped nut with one of his paws and slapped it against a large stone twice. When it didn't break open, the little lemur took the nut with both paws and slammed it down on the big rock. Just as he did, there was a loud 'boom' and the earth quaked beneath our feet making Momo shriek and his hair stand on end.

"What was that?" Sokka asked.

Obviously believing he was the one to cause the quake, he cautiously dropped the rock to the ground. When the ground quaked once again, the little lemur jumped away and climbed up onto my shoulder.

"It's coming from over there!" Aang said as he and Katara ran towards the noise.

"Shouldn't we run _away_ from the huge booms? Not toward them?" Sokka asked.

Sighing, I looked at my twin. "I agree with you, but we should probably go after them and make sure they dont get into any troub,le" I said. With a gro,an Sokka ageed and two of us followed after our friend and younger sister; along with Momo who was still perched on my shoulder. Hiding behind a fallen tree, we saw a boy a little older than Katara bending boulders into the air and punching them into the side of the ravine.

"And earthbender!" Katara and I said in amazement.

"Let's go meet him!"

"We should be cautious, though, Aang," I told the boy.

"Yea' Sokka agreed. "He looks dangerous."

Ignoring our brother, Katara instantly wandered away from us, excitedly introducing herself to the strange earthbender. Only for him to instantly drop the boulder he was bending and run away. Bringing down an avalance of boulders to block the path to keep us from following. "Nice to meet you!" Aang called out as the three of us walked over to where my little sister stood.

"I just wanted to say hi" Katara shrugged.

"Hey!" Aang exclaimed. "That guys gotta be going somewhere, right?"

"So maybe a village with a market?" I added, catching onto my friends train of thought.

"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara continued with excitement before she and Aang ran in the same direction as the strange earthbender. Sokka had tried defending his hard work, but his words fell on deaf ears as Momo and I walked passed him.

* * *

From what I could tell, this was some sort of mining village. It wa small, and didn't have many goods outside of tools and food. Not that we had the money to actually pay for anything that wasn't food anyway. But the more we moved north, the more we would need lighter clothes. My siblings and I had even decided to leave our thick coats behind with Appa.

"Hey Katara, look" I mumbled, nudging my sisters arm when I saw the boy from earlier enter a nearby shop. Instantly the two of us followed him, only I let my slightly-pushy little sister take the lead.

"Hey, you're that kid," she said when we opened the door, startling the boy and who I assumed was his mother. "Why did you run away before?" Katara asked.

"Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid," he said nervously.

"No, we don't," I told him when Sokka and Aang followed us into the shop.. "We saw you earthbending near our campsite."

At my revelation, the boys mother gasped in horror before rushing around, slapping shut the doors and windows before turning on her son. "They saw you doing _what?!"_ she all but hissed at the boy.

"They're crazy, mom" he defended with an obvious lie. "I mean, look at how their dressed." With a frown, I looked down at my outfit. My black leggings and blue top did seem a little out of place in this earth kingdom village. Though it made sense that the boy would thing my sisblings, Aang and I dressed funny. It was rare for people from the Water Tribe to travel outside of their villages, and nobody has seen an Air Nomad in a hundred years.

"You _know_ how dangerous that is!" the woman scolded. "You know what would happen if _they_ caught you earthbending!"

The moment she spoke, there was a heavy handed knock on the door. "Open up!" a voice demanded, causing Sokka to run over to the window.

"Fire nation! he whispered. "Act natural!"

So thats what we did, all of us kids taking a stance around the room while the boys mother opened the door for the Fire Nation man. I could feel his sour gaze slide over us and I didn't dare look up from the parchment I had found on the desk.

'What do you want?" said woman aggressively. "I've already paid you this week!"

"The tax just doubled" the man I assumed was a tax collector said arrogantly. "And we wouldn't want an accident now would we? Fire is sometimes so hard to control" he threatened, creating a ball of fire between his hands, causing the others to back away. I was the furthest from him, but I could feel the water the boys mother had been drinking shake in the glass next to me. Just like before, I didn't feel the familiar pull from my bending. It was as if the water was acting on its own. Which, of course, was impossible.

As the older woman and the tax collector made their way closer to where I stood, I silently willed the water to stop moving. If earthbending could get someone taken away, then I'm sure the same could be said for waterbending. When the woman grabbed the small chest behind the counter and passed over a small amount of Earth Kingdom coins to the tax collector, I had to close my eyes to stop the glare that was forming on my face.

"You can keep the copper ones," the fire nation man said, letting the copper peices fall the floor before he walked away.

No one spoke for a few minutes after the door slammed shut. "Nice guy" drawled my brother, glaring towards the door quickly before turning back to us.

"How long has the Fire Nation been here?" I asked softly.

"Five years" signed the Earth Kingdom woman. "Fire Lord Ozai uses our towns coal mines to feul his ships."

"Their thugs" spat the long haired Earth Kingdom boy. "They steal from us and everyone here's too much of a coward to do anything about it."

" Quiet, Haru!" his mother said, angered by her sons words. "Don't talk like that." It was obvious that she was scared of one of the Fire Nation tax collectors or soldiers hearing him.

"But.. Haru's an earthbender, right?" I asked, sharing a curious glance with my sister.

"If he's an earthbender, he can help!" she added.

With a meaningful glance towards her son, the woman sighed. "Earthbending is forbidden. It's caused nothing bu misery for this village!" she told us. "He must _never_ use his abilities."

"How can you say that?" I asked softly, "Haru's abilities are a gift!" I added while Katara stepped forward.

"Asking Haru not to earthbend is like asking me or Keira not to waterbend. It's part of who we are."

"You don't understand" Haru's mother shook her head.

"We understand that Haru can help you fight back" I interupted. "What can the Fire Nation do that they haven't done already?"

"They could take Haru away," she said solemnly while her son turned his gaze down. "Like they took his father."

* * *

Haru's mother had allowed us to stay in their barn for the night. The only catch was that we had to leave at daybreak. Wanting to actually get some sleep before we had to leave, I was the first to pull out my sleeping bag and set it up.

"Going to be already, Keira?" Sokka asked me.

'Yea" I said, letting out my braids and ran my fingers through my thick brown hair. "I didn't get much sleep last night. Wake me if anything happens?" Sokka agreed quietly and wished me good night as I snuggled down deep in my sleeping bag.

Sleep found me quickly and soon enough I was in what I knew had to be a dream.

I was sitting beside a small pool in something I could call an oasis. The air was warm and humming with spiritual energy. Looking down in the pool was was met with my relfection, but it was... different. My hair was down in loose waves, small braids woven through with little blue pearls. Even my clothes were different. Instead of the dark blue short sleeved top, I was wearing a silk dress with sleeves much like the top I had worn aboard Zuko's ship, only it was a pearly blue color and swept dangerously low on my chest. A long floor length, almost see though ice blue cape sewn onto my dress. And I was barefoot.

"Hello," said a warm voice. Looking up from my reflection in the pool I was met with an even stranger site. A pale skinned woman with hair the color of gold, but what was weird was where her legs were supposed to be was a blue fish tail. _She's a water spirit_! "My name is Mava" the woman grinned. "And you must be Princess Kiera of the Southern Water Tribe."

It was always weird hearing my actual title. Even though our dad was the cheif, it had been so long since those titles meant anything. So long that it was usually something my siblings and I forgot. "Um... I guess?" I said uncertainly.

"Of course you are!" Mava chimed with a large smile. One that lit up her bright blue eyes. Slowly she lowered her tail into the pool, while she sat on the ground. The water was deeper than I expected. But this was a dream, so things were bound to be a little weird.

"So...um...w-where are we?" I asked, looking around at the small cave we were in. Might as well make the most out of this dream while I still could.

"Oh, why you're in the spirit world silly."

* * *

I didn't have time to be shocked at what I had just been told. Because the next thing I knew it was just after dawn and I was being shaken awake by my sister. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, causing my to instantly forget about my weird dream and sat up in my sleeping bag. "Keira, they took him!" she whimpered. "They took Haru away!"

"What?" Aang and I said at the same time.

Katara had went one to explain that the old man that she and Haru had helped last night had turned him in to the Fire Nation. "It's all my fault!" she cried. "I forced him into earthbending!"

"Slow down, Katara" Sokka told our little sister, walking over to us and putting a hand on her shoulder. "When did this happen?" she asked.

"Haru's mother said they came for him at midnight," Katara told us.

Sokka just sighed and looked towards the barn door "Then it's too late to track him, he's long gone."

Defiantly, with her blue eyes hardened, Katara stood and turned towards the door. "We don't need to track him" she sniffed. "The Fire Nation is going to take me right to a Haru."

"And..." Aang paused, his brows lowered in confusion. " _why_ would they do that?" asked the Avatar.

"Because they're going to arrest me for earthbending," Katara told us. And while Aang and Sokka shared a look of horrification. While I stood and and brushed the stray bits of hay out of ny hair.

"Count me in sis."

* * *

The plan was to have Aang push air through the underground air vents on the rocky road. We just had to stage a fight between Katara and Sokka with a Fire Nation soldier near enough to see Katara fake earthbending. Pretty much this entire plan depended on the twelve year old who was currently snapping small puffs of air at a little butterfly.

"Aang, did you get all that?" Katara asked, turning to the airbender with her hands on her hips.

Aang, who was barely listen, simply continued sending small buffs of air at the little copper colored butterfly. "Sure, sure. I got it" he told us.

"Do you remember your cue?" I asked the distracted boy.

"Yea, yea, just relax," Aang said dismissively. "You guys are taking all the fun out of this."

"By _this_ do you mean intentionally being captured by a group of ruthless firebenders?" Sokka asked in aggrivation.

"Exactly! That's funs tuff!"

A moment later, we saw the firebenders coming towards us. Quickly we all got into our places. As much as I wanted to go with Katara, we all thought it would be best that I stayed hidden with Aang, so I dropped down off of the large boulder I had been sitting on and ducked down so that I wouldn't be seen. We all knew how distracted Aang could get, so really it was my job to make sure that the Avatar stayed focused. From my hiding spot, I listened closely to the 'fight' between my brother and sister. It was pretty terrible, and I had to slap a hand over my mouth when Katara called Sokka a 'giant eared cretin' and continued making fun of Sokka ears. It was a sore spot that only the two of us knew about.

When Aang's cue finally came, I looked over and saw that Aang was _still_ playing with the butterfly. Rolling my eyes, I nudged him, just as Katara repeated the words ' _Earthbending Style_!' Realizing his mistake, Aang gasped and sent a strong gust of air into the ventilation duct, causing the boulder Sokka had placed on the other duct to levitate into the air. Only for the idiot firebenders to think that it was _Momo_ who was earthbending. Sokka, thankfully, corrected the firebenders and handed our sister over to them.

Now, all we had to do was wait. Katara had twelve hours to find and rescue Haru. Naturally, the boys and I were going to be right behind her on Appa, just incase she needed a quick rescue.

It was going to be along day.

* * *

While staying hidden in the clouds, I managed a quick nap. A part of me was hoping that I could revisit my dream from last night, but naturally, that didn't happen. Instead, I had a normal dream about riding a polarbear dog through the icy tundra of my home.

When I finally woke up, it was because Sokka shook me awake. Katara's twelve hours were just about up. As Appa started to lower towards the prisoner barge, I could see the small group of earthbenders standing before a brown and blue dot. Katara.

From what I could tell, she was trying to rally the prisoners. Probably trying to get them to fight back against the firebenders.

"One of us will have to sneak on board," Sokka said.

"I'll do it" I offered.

"No" Aang veto'ed "I'll go."

So it was decided. At nightfall, when everyone on the ship was asleep, Aang was going to sneak on board and get Katara off of the ship. All Sokka and I had to do was sit and wait with Appa.

"Your twelve hours are up," Sokka told our sister when Aang finally brought her to us. "We've gotta get outta here!"

"I can't," Katara told us, detirmination shining in her blue eyes.

"Katara, we don't have much time," Sokka said hurriedly. "There are guards everywhere, get on."

Aang and I both looked at her in confusion. "Katara, what's going on?" I asked.

"I'm not leaving," she said, "I'm not giving up on these people."

"What do you mean you're not leaving?" Sokka asked in disbelief as the four of us crouched down on the rail beside Appa.

Defiant as ever Katara responded that we couldn't abandon the Earth Kingdom prisoners. And she was right, we had to help them. Naturally, Aang agreed, but it took a while to get Sokka onboard. It helped that the guards were close and Sokka always had a problem saying no to the two of us when we both let out our stubborness and ganged up on him.

As Aang sent Appa away, the four of us hid within a large set of boxes. There was just enough room on the metal ground for the four of us to sit in a tight circle.

"Alright, I don't think they'll be around this way again for a while but still, we don't have much time," I said, peaking over a box real quick before ducking back down. "What are we going to do?"

"I wish I knew how to make a hurricane!" My siblings and I fixed the Avatar with un-entertained looks. "The warden would run away and we'd steal his keys!" he added excitedly.

As if it were obvious Sokka asked "Aang, wouldn't he just take his keys with him?"

"I'm just tossing ideas around."

"Katara, this started with you" I turned to my little sister. "Do you got anything?"

Katara just sighed "I tried talking the earthbenders into fighting back but, it didn't work! If there was just a way to help them help themselves."

"For that, they'd need some kind of earth, or some rock," Sokka said. "You know, something they can _bend_."

Laying my palm on the surface of the floor, I frowned. "But this entire place is metal."

"No, it's not," Aang told us, pointing to an object behind us. Turing around I saw the large smokwstacks sitting out thick black smoke. "Look at that smoke! I bet they're burning coal. In other words, _earth_."

For the rest of the night, the four of us snuk around on the Fire Nation prison ship. All the while, trying to devise a way to get the coal to the earthbenders. Most of me wasn't that suprised when Sokka came up with the plan. He had said that the ships vents reminded him of the trick we had pulled to get Katara arrested in the first place. So the plan was for Aang to close off all of the vents except for one, and then to use his airbending to send the coal through the vents. Only it had just the one place to go, right where we needed it.

As dawn finally broke, our plan was put into action. Aang went around closing off the vents while Katara, Sokka and I waited. But the next thing I knew, we were being surrounded by Fire Nation guards with their spears pointed at us. And the earthbender prisoners weren't too far away, watching as my siblings and I instantly took defensive stances. I could feel the pull of my bending abilities as the water below the ship reacted to my stance.

"Katara, stop! You can't win this fight!" stated one of the prisoners. Beside him stood Haru, so i could only assume that the older man was his father.

"Listen to him well, child," said a man I assumed was the Warden of the prisonship. "You're one mistake from dying where you stand."

Suddenly there was a loud rush of air and the ventilation shaft burst off of it's hinges. A moment later a large wave of coal spit through the air and crashed down in a pile at our feet. Followed shortly by a dirt-covered Aang and Momo. Quickly, without a second thought, Katara rushed over to the pile, before rabbing a peice and turning to the earthbenders.

"Here's your chance, earthbenders!" Katara called out. "Take it! Your fate is in your own hands!"

But only Haru rushed forward, prepared to bend the coal. Before he could, his father stopped him with a hand on his chest.

All of this caused the warden to burst out in amused laughter. "Foolish girl" he spat. "You thought a few impirational words and some coal would change these people? Look at these blank, hopeless faces. Their spirits were broken long ago." From where I stood, I could see my little sisters expression dim. "Oh, but you still believe in them. How sweet. They're a waste of your energy little girl. You _failed_."

The next thing I knew, Haru sent a single peice of coal sailing through the air, pelting the warden in the back of the head. I wasn't used to using my bending to fight, but I was willing to try. Especially if the earthbenders were finally willing to fight back. Just as the warden sent a blast of fire at the boy, his father brought up a wall of coal to defend his son. At the same time, I brought water from the ocean to my hands, forming it into a long ice dagger the second it touched my skin.

"Show no mercy," the warden told his men. Instantly the benders sent blasts of fire at the prisoners, not thinking that they would fight back.

"For the Earth Kingdom, attack!" Haru's father rallied as e and the other earthbenders worked together to haul a large hunk of coal to block the flames. When it finally fell to the floor, the battle was sent into motion.

I didn't know much about fighting, either, but I did know some from my dad. And a little more from my short time on Zuko's ship. Instantly, I picked a firebender from the small group and went in for him. Instantly the older man thought that he had the upperhand, igniting a flame in his hand to melt my dagger. And he was right, of course, but in his arrogance, he forgot that I was a waterbender. A novice waterbender, of course, but still a waterbender. So, as soon as my dagger started to melt, I made it so that the water moved to wrap around the wrist of the firebender, before covering his hand in a thick layer of ice, calling in my water from the ocean. Once he was knocked out, I ran after my brother who was chopping spears in two with his trusty boomerang. Momo happily collecting the broken peices that were thrown up at him.

"Get to the ship!" Haru's dad called to us. "We'll hold them off!"

For a moment we stopped running, and Aang generated an air funnel. Holding it between his hands, he called to us "Guys! Throw me some coal!"

Catching on to what the Avatar was saying, my siblings and I instantly started dropping heaps of coal into the funnel; firing the material rapidly at the warden and the other firebenders. Seeing what the four of us were doing, the earthbenders worked in unison to bring together the coal. Moving the firebenders away from the ship and over the ocean.

Seeing what the former prisoners had planned, the warden pleaded, saying "No, please, I can't swim!"

"Don't worry, I hear cowards float" Haru's father said, right before dropping the Fire Nation shoulders into the ocean.

I couldn't help it, I instantly let out a large 'HA!' before turning to face my twin with a large smile. Not even twenty minutes later, we were heading back to the mainland. Katara had decided to stay on the barge for the ride, while Sokka, Aang and I took Appa. And as the large bison swam, Aang and Sokka chatted while I took this small opportunity to take a short nap.

This time, if I dreamed. I didn't remember it.


	7. Chapter 7: Mavas Blessing

**Chapter Seven**

 **The Winter Solstice Part 1**

 **Mavas' Blessing**

"Those clouds look so soft, don't they?" Katara's light, dreamy voice spoke. It had been about a day since we left Haru's village and all of us were lounging around in Appa's saddle. Looking at the puffy clouds, I couldn't help but lazily smile at my sister before closing my eyes and soaking up the sun.

"Yea" I agreed. "Almost like you could just jump down and land on a big, soft heap of puff."

"Maybe you two should give it a try" Sokka told us with a mocking smile.

"You're a jerk Sokka" I rolled my eyes at my twin.

Suddenly, Aang sat up and looked at us excitedly. "I'll try it!" he said, and a second later he was jumping off of Appa's head with a large smile on his face. Using his bending to glide and spiral through the fluffy white cloud. I guess being an airbender had its perks. It was just a few short minutes later that Aang landed behind us, dripping from head to toe. "Turns out, clouds are made of water," he told us. Breathing deeply, the Avatar slammed his fist against the stretched palm of the opposite hand, using his bending to dry himself off.

With a small chuckle, I leaned back against the side of Appa's saddle once again. Once again I went to close my eyes, but I stopped when I noticed a dark patch of trees in the middle of the forest. Furrowing my brow, I turned and tried to figure out just what exactly I was seeing.

"It's like a scar..." Sokka murmured. Instantly a face popped up in my mind's eye, and I had to shake my head to clear my thoughts.

"We should check it out" I suggested. Thankfully the others agreed, and Aang steered Appa to land in the scorched patch of forest.

There were no words to describe how I felt about what I was seeing. Some sort of mix between sad and severely angry. The trees had been burnt to stumps with no way of ever growing back to their former glory. And since there were no trees, there were no homes for the many animals who had once called this forest home. Aang, however, seemed to be taking it harder than any of us.

"Why would anyone do this?" he asked. "How could I let this happen?"

Instantly, Katara went to control our friend. "Aang, you didn't let this happen. It has nothing to do with you" she told him.

"Yes, it does" Aang responded sadly. "It's the Avatar's job to protect nature. But I don't know how to do my job."

"That's why we're going to the Northern Water Tribe," I said with a small smile, trying to soothe the boy. "To find you a teacher, right?"

"Yea, a waterbending teacher" he stated. "But there's no one who can teach me how to be the Avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me."

"The Avatar before you?" Sokka asked. "He died over one hundred years ago; how are you supposed to talk to him?"

Aang just sighed as Momo came and settled on his lap. "I don't know."

* * *

For about an hour my siblings and I wandered around the burnt forest while Aang all but moped. It wasn't until Katara found a few acorns that a smile appeared on her own face, causing me to smile as well.

"Hey, Aang!" Katara called out as she walked over to the boy. "You ready to be cheered up?" she asked.

"No," Aang said sadly, only to have an acorn thrown at him. "Ow! Hey, how is that cheering me up?" he asked.

"Cheered me up" Sokka chuckled. This time I threw an acorn at him with a light glare. "Ow! Yea I probably deserved that."

"These acorns are everywhere, Aang," Katara told the boy. "That means the forest will grow back!"

"That's right" I nodded. "Every one of these little guys will be a tall oak tree someday, and all the birds and animals will come back and make the forest their home again." With that, Katara placed an acorn in Aang hand and closed his fingers over it.

"Thanks, Katara. Keira." The two of us simply smiled at the boy before my little sister let out a small gasp. Looking up, I saw an old man approaching us.

"Hey, who are you?" Sokka asked, instantly taking up the defense.

But instead of answering my brother, the old wander approached Aang. "When I saw the flying bison, I thought it was impossible!" he stated. "But, those markings...are you the Avatar, child?"

Aang didn't answer right away. We all knew the risk of letting strangers know who Aang really was. When Katara nodded at our friends' unasked question, Aang simply nodded at the man.

"I come from a small village not far from here called Senlin and we desperately need your help, Avatar."

* * *

It didn't take much conviving. As the Avatar, Aang needed to help anyone who was in trouble, and my siblings and I had taken on the job of helping him in any way that we could. When we finally reached Senlin Village, I couldn't help but widen my eyes in shock. Most of the building were destroyed and something told me that it _wasn't_ the Fire Nation. No scorch marks.

"This young person is the Avatar!" the old man said as he brought us into the building in the center of the village.

"So, the rumors of your return are true," said the leader of Senlin village as he greeted Aang with a bow. "It is the greatest honor of a lifetime to be in your presence."

"Nice to meet you too!" Aang smiled before looking around at the large room we were standing in. "So...is there something I can help you with?" he asked.

"I'm not sure..." the village leader trailed off.

But the old man we had seen in the burnt forest spoke up. "Our village is in crisis, he's our only hope!" he said to the leader before turning to us. "For the last few days at sunset, a spirit monster comes and attacks our village. He is Hei Bai, the black and white spirit."

As he spoke, I couldn't help but look over my shoulder. The sun sinking low over the horizon. "Why is it attacking you?" I asked.

"We do not know," the village leader shook his head. "But each of the last three nights, he has abducted one of our own. We are especially fearful because the winter solstice draws near."

"What happens then?" Katara asked.

"I remember Gran-Gran telling me about this," I said. "During a solstice, the barrier between the human and spirit worlds is blurred. It allows spirits to basically do whatever they want."

"Hei Bai is already causing devastation and destruction," said the leader of the village. "Once the solstice is here, there's no telling what will happen."

"So, what do you want me to do, exactly?"

The old man stepped forward once again, towards the door. "Who better to resolve a crisis between our world and the Spirit World than the Avatar himself? You are the great bridge between man and spirits."

"Right..." Aang was unsure. "That's me."

"Hey 'great bridge guy'" Katara whispered. "Can I talk to you over here for a second?" she asked, before leading the boy over to a window. "Aang, you seem a little unsure about this," she said in a low voice, hoping not to be overheard by the scared villagers.

For some reason, angry spirits didn't frighten me as much as angry firebenders.

"Yea, that might be because I don't know anything at all about the Spirit World. It's not like there's someone to teach me this stuff!" the Avatar told us. "Keira, you seem to know a lot about the Spirit World, how did you learn about it?" he asked.

"Books mostly" I shrugged. "And stories Gran-Gran told me. I honestly don't even know what's true and what's not" I added, letting out a sigh as I looked over Katara's shoulder at the setting sun. "I can tell you some of what I know, but until there's more time...do you think you can help these people?" I asked, causing the little monk to sigh.

"I have to try, don't I? Maybe whatever I have to do will just...come to me" he told us with a slight shrug as Momo landed on his shoulder.

"I think you can do it, Aang," Katara told him with a kind reassuring smile.

"Me too" I added, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Sokka smiled as well, but it faltered quickly. "Yea..." he paused. "We're all going to get eaten by a spirit monster."

* * *

The sun was barely visible on the horizon now and Aang was standing all alone outside of the building we were in. This didn't feel right, though, Aang may have been the Avatar, but we were his friends and we should be outside with him.

A sentiment I was surprised that Sokka shared with me. "This isn't right," he said. "We can't sit here and cower while Aang waits for some monster to show up."

"If anyone can save us, he can," the old wanderer told us.

"He still shouldn't have to face this alone" I grumbled, folding my arms over my chest as I watched Aang carefully. As the sun finally disappeared, and the sky turned dark, I could hear the young Avatar call out into the night. From where we stood, I couldn't quite make out exactly what he was saying, but I could tell that he was attempting to make contact with the spirit.

As he started to walk away, however, I noticed something happing behind him. The spirit I could only assume was Hei Bai fading into the real world. There was something strange about it, though. It didn't... _look_ right. Something told me that this large, black and white monstrosity outside wasn't what this spirit was supposed to look like. But when Hei Bai sent out a burst of energy at Aang, my spine instantly straightened.

"The Avatars methods are...unusual" the Sinlin Village leader stated as we watched the blast of spirit energy make contact with a building.

"It doesn't seem too interested in what he's saying" pointed out my twin brother.

"He's right" I never thought I would say those words. "Maybe we should go help him."

The old wanderer simply shook his head. "No. Only the Avatar stands a chance against Hei Bai."

"Aang will figure out the right thing to do, Sokka." Katara agreed with the old man. I wasn't so sure, my hands tightening into fists as Hei Bai smashed into yet another building. Aang tried to command the spirit to face him, only to be sent flying into the already dilapidated roof of yet another building.

"That's it, he needs help," Sokka said, looking towards me. With a nod, the two of us left the building. Katara tried calling out for us, but she was stopped from following by the village leader. "Hei Bai, over here!" my twin called out as he threw his boomerang at the spirit while I sent a ball of ice, only for them to simply bounce off.

"Sokka, Keira, go back!" Aang tried telling us as we ran over to him. We didn't listen, Sokka telling the boy that we could fight the spirit together. Aang tried telling us that he didn't want to resort to violence, but he barely got the sentiment out before Sokka and I were both grabbed by Hei Bai. All I could do was share a fearful look with my brother.

* * *

I don't remember falling asleep. But when I woke up I was in the last place I expected. The little igloo I shared with my family in the south pole. But it was different, everything was washed in a strange blue glow and the place I usually slept was bare of furs and my snow leopard-fox was nowhere to be seen. A sudden pang hit my heart when I thought my kitty. I missed her so much.

When I heard the soft coo of a newborn I turned. What I saw made me stop in shock and tears well up in my eyes.

My mother was sitting on her bed with two babies in her arms. Me and Sokka, this was the day we were born.

"Mom?" I whispered, but of course, she couldn't see or hear me. Why would she?

"Oh Hakoda they're so beautiful" I heard my mom whisper before looking up at my dad.

Dad stared down at us with a loving look, before he places a knuckle on my cheek. "She's the firstborn," he said, his blue eyes never leaving my infant self. "You know what this means, Kya."

"I know," Mom said solemnly, the happy air in the igloo taking a drastic turn. Furrowing my brow, I watched the scene before me in confusion. I watched as my mom passed the still sleeping bundle that was Sokka over to Gran-Gran before both of my parents bundled the three of us and ventured out into the snow. Looking back at Gran-Gran's aged face, I frowned before following after my parents. Mom and Dad walked in silence, and mom was holding the newborn version of myself close to her chest. When they finally stopped it was in front of a cave that I had never seen before, and I had spent a looooot of time wandering around the south pole. It was the inside that shocked me the most, however.

It was Mava's Oasis.

Then suddenly, mom and dad were gone and it was just me and the water spirit. On instinct, I looked down, and I was wearing the same dress I had been the last time I was here. "How..."

"Hello again, Princess Keira" stated the bell-like voice of the water spirit. Between seeing my parents, my _mom_ , and then being here in Mava's oasis in the spirit world, it was just so much. I didn't know how to respond or what to say.

"Why am I here?" I finally asked.

"Come, sit," Mava told me, patting the lush grass beside her. Without saying a word, I sat beside the water spirit and put my feet in the warm water. "I'm surprised you don't know this story," she said. "Well, I'll start at the beginning. I am the daughter of the Moon Spirit Tui and the Ocean Spirit La. When I became a fully formed spirit, they gave me dominion over the Southern Water Tribe. I made a pact with the people of the tribe. The firstborn daughter of the chief would receive my blessing."

"Wha...what is the blessing?" I asked. "Is that why I keep on coming here?"

"Yes," Mava chuckled. "Not only could you bend water, but _water itself_ would go to great length to protect you. Reacting whenever you felt great fear or great anger. As for your appearances in the spirit world, I think your friend Avatar Aang has something to do with that. Most of the waterbenders I bless rarely ever travel to the spirit world, usually they just come to my oasis on the full moon and learn here. But _you_ , Princess Keira, are _special_." I had so many more questions, but as soon as I opened my mouth Mava rose her hand and stopped me. "We have all the time in the world to cover everything, but for now, I believe it is time for you to return to your family."

* * *

The next thing I knew, I was walking beside my brother and a bunch of people I had never seen before. All of us were pushing through the bamboo until we saw the village in front of us. Aang had done it, he had saved the village. He had brought home the missing villagers, including me and Sokka, and he had shown the spirit, Hei Bai, that there was hope for the forest. That it would someday grow back.

"Sokka! Keira!" called out our little sister as she ran to hug us.

"What happened?" asked my twin.

"You two were trapped in the Spirit World for 24 hours!" she told us. "How are you guys feeling?" Suddenly a strange look came over Sokka's face as he ran to relieve his bladder. Gross. Silently, I listened as the Senlin village leader thanked Aang. When Sokka came back, he instantly suggested that the man give us some supplies and money. "Sokka!" Katara scolded.

She looked to me for backup, but I just shrugged. "He has a point, Katara, we'll need to stuff to get us to the north pole."

"It would be an honor to help you prepare for your journey" the village leader bowed before walking away to get us our supplies.

"I'm so proud of you, Aang," Katara said, putting a hand on our friend's arm, "You figured out what to do all on your own."

"Actually, I did have a little help" Aang admitted. "And there's something else..." he trailed off

"What is it?" I asked.

"I need to talk to Roku and I think I found a way to contact his spirit," said the Avatar.

Katara perked up excitedly "That's great!"

"Creepy, but great" Sokka shivered.

Aang simply continued unperturbed. "There's a crescent-shaped island and if I got there on the solstice, I'll be able to talk with him."

"But the solstice is tomorrow!" Katara and I exclaimed at the same time.

"Yea and there's one more problem...the island is in the Fire Nation."


	8. Chapter 8: Behind Enemy Lines

**Chapter Eight**

 **The Winter Solstice Part 2**

 **Behind Enemy Lines**

We ended up leaving Senlin Village when the moon was high. But only after Katara, Sokka and I had caught Aang trying to sneak away with Appa. "Let's go, Appa! Come on, boy!" I heard the boy try, only for the large sky bison to let out a roar in protest before plopping down on the ground. "Look I'm sorry, but Katara, Keira, and Sokka aren't coming to the Fire Nation with us. If they got hurt, I'd never forgive myself" he said sadly. "So get your big butt off the ground and let's go!"

From where the three of us were standing, I watched as Aang jerked at the reins tied to Appa's horns, only for him to be flung to the ground when the ropes pull him back. Appa still not moving a muscle.

"I think his big butt is trying to tell ya something" Sokka finally spoke up, causing Aang to spin around in shock, trying to find the source of the voice. His face falling a little when he saw us standing in plain view with a small collection of villagers behind us.

"Please don't go Aang" Katara pleaded desperately. "The world can't lose you to the Fire Nation..." she paused for a second, her face distraught and pleading. "Neither can I" my little sister added quietly.

Aang looked away from us sadly before turning to approach us. "But I have tot alk to Avatar Roku to find out what my vision means!" he said "I need to go to the Fire Temple before the sun sets on the solstice. That's _today_!" With that, he airbended himself atop Appa's fluffy head, taking the reins in his hands. When Appa rose to stand on all six of his feet, Katara, Sokka and I ran to stand in front of the bison, stopping him from moving any further.

"We're not letting you go into the Fire Nation, Aang" Katara said defiantly.

"At least not without your friends" Sokka added.

I just nodded and tried not to laugh when Appa licked my twin. "That's right, we got your back, buddy," I told him before my brother, sister and I climbed up onto Appa's saddle.

"It's a long journey to the Crescent Island," the Senlin Village leader told us, handing Aang a small bundle of supplies. "You'll have to fly fast to have any chance of making it before sundown. Good Luck."

"Thank you for your-" but Aang was interrupted the village leader with a sharp shout of "Go!"

And then we took to the sky.

* * *

We hadn't been in the air for very long. It had been only about an hour after we left Senlin Village when I noticed a small dot in the water. Normally I wouldn't think anything of it, but when I leaned over the saddle a little and squinted...it was a Fire Nation ship. Prince Zuko had found us. My heart pounded in my chest as I shook my sister's shoulder and pointed to the ship below.

"Aang. We've got trouble!" she called out over the wind.

By now, Sokka had noticed as well "Yea! And it's gaining, fast!" he said, his voice panicked. My eyes widened when I noticed the firebenders readying to fire _something_ at us.

"FIREBALL!" Katara and I yelled at the same time.

"I'm on it!" Aang told us as he pulled Appas reins so that the bison drifted out of the way of the fiery ball of stink that had been launched at us.

"We have to get out of Zuko's range before he shoots another hot stinker at us!" Katara told Aang as we all covered our faces in an attempt to block out the rotten smell.

"Can't you make Appa go any faster?" Sokka asked.

"Yea." Aang told us, "But there's just one little problem..." he trailed off.

Looking at the ocean below, my eyes widened with a mix of shock and fear. A two-row line of Fire Nation ships stretching across the waters. Though I couldn't see them all that well, I just knew that each and every one of those ships had a catapult loaded for attack.

"If we fly north, we can go around the Fire Nation ships and avoid the blockade! It's the _only_ way" Aang called out to us over the wind. Everything about his body language was telling me how scared he was. Closing my eyes, I realized how terrified I was as well.

"There's no time!" Katara said fearfully. She was right, we only had a few short hours to get to Avatar Roku's island so that Aang could, somehow, talk to his predecessor.

"This is exactly why I didn't want you to come!" Aang stressed. "It's too dangerous!"

"And that's _exactly_ why we're here!" I shot back. "We're not giving up on you!"

"Let's run this blockade!" Sokka boldly spoke before sharing confident a confident grin with both me and Katara.

"Appa, yip-yip!"

As Appa soared over the Fire Nation blockade, the soldiers all sent fireballs flying at us. All four of us screamed, as our fluffy buddy did his best to evade. We even flew through one just as it exploded, the soot darkening Appa's fur. Some embers had clung to Appa, and instantly Katara, Sokka and I jumped to pat out the smoldering spots.

"Appa, are you okay?" Aang asked, only to receive a roar in reply before we soared higher into the clouds. That didn't stop the Fire Navy ships from firing on us though. With a scream, I gripped Appa's saddle and ducked away from the flames, suddenly the water canteen from my bag through itself in my direction. My hands shook as I picked up the canteen and held it to my chest. Closing my eyes, Mavas voice drifted through my mind. ' _Not only could you bend water, but water itself would go to great length to protect you'._ I didn't doubt the water spirits' words, it was just a shock to find that they were true.

Once more I screamed when my twin brother was thrown from the saddle. Instantly, as Aang snapped the reins and began a speedy chase for my brother, I whipped my hand out. At the same time, water flowed from the canteen but it wasn't enough to grab hold of Sokka. Thankfully, Appa reached my twin brother just in time, allowing Katara and me to grab his hand and pull him back into the saddle. We didn't climb back to the clouds after that, instead, Appa soared mere feet about the surface. We were so close, I could feel the pull of my element. The ocean calling, _urging_ to come to my defense. When I saw yet another fireball coming right for us, I tried to react and use my waterbending to stop the projectile... but I wasn't strong enough.

In an act of determination, Aang airbended off of Appa's head and with an immensely powerful airbending kick, he caused the flaming boulder to explode before it hit us. Letting out a shuddering breath, I dropped the canteen into my lap and sank down into the saddle.

"We made it!" Aang stated ecstatically while Katara and Sokka grimaced in terror.

"We got into the Fire Nation...great" Sokka said meekly.

* * *

The next few hours, we sat on Appa in silence. I was still too freaked about what was happening with the water to say anything, and if my companions noticed they didn't say anything. And we were _all_ terrified and nervous about flying over Fire Nation waters. Hopefully, this visit to Avatar Roku's island was worthwhile.

As I watched the waves below, I couldn't help but think about what I had seen in the Spirit World. The...memory, or whatever it was, of my parents. Of the day Sokka and I were born. It made me think about Gran-Gran, I wondered why she had never told me about Mava or her blessing on the Southern Water Tribe. There were just so many questions that I probably wouldn't get the answers to for a long time. Mava had said that we would see each other again and that she would teach me about what powers came with her blessing, so at least I had that to look forward to. My only question was _when_. When would I see the water spirit again, would it be in my dreams like the first time? Or would I have to be taken to the Spirit World like the other night?

When the sky started to change from soft blue to a myriad of oranges and pinks, I couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. What if we didn't make it in time? It wasn't until I saw Momo bouncing about eagerly that I regained that little sliver of hope I had lost. In front of us was the Crescent Island, it's volcano emitting billows of smoke.

"There it is!" Aang announced, causing Sokka and Katara to pop up in the saddle all tiredness leaving their eyes. "The island where Roku's dragon took me."

Tiredly, Appa landed at the base of an ornate stone bridge that lead to the islands' mountain. At the end of the bridge, I could see the large, elegant Fire Temple. I was almost surprised that the stream that flowed beneath the bridge wasn't water, but was in fact lava. The air, however, was so thick with steam that it was a slight comfort. I knew how to manipulate the steam using my bending. That would be helpful if we ran into trouble, which was more than likely. We _were_ behind enemy lines after all.

"You did it buddy" Aang complimented as he rubbed against the bison's large head. "Nice flying." The large beast simply bellowed in satisfaction before rolling onto his side, waving three of his feet in the air.

"Aww, you must be tired" Katara cooed, rubbing Appa's belly fondly.

Sokka's face was joyous as he stretched himself out. "No! I'm good" he said. "Refreshed and ready to fight some firebenders!"

Propping my hand in my hip, I rolled my eyes at my twin. "I think she was talking to Appa."

"Well..." Sokka faltered, stopping his work-out. "I was talking to Momo" he covered, pointing to the lemur who was now clinging to a dead tree branch.

We mobilized a few moments later, walking cautiously along the beautiful stone bridge. "I don't see any guards," I said when we finally reached the multi-story Fire Temple. You would think that a place like this would have Fire Nation soldiers guarding the structure on all points. But... there was no one.

"The Fire Nation must have abandoned the temple when Avatar Roku died," Katara said as we took cover behind a low wall by the steps. We didn't stay hidden for long, it was almost sundown and we needed to hurry.

Carefully we crept through the door and into an enormous chamber, decorated in familiar fire-decor. "Wait" Sokka halted, "I think I heard something."

Turning around, I saw five old men dressed in red with tall hats. "We are the Fire Sages. Guardians of the temple of the Avatar."

"Great!" Aang said happily. "I am the Avatar!"

"We know" sneered the old man before he inhaled sharply, punching a blast of fire in our direction. Instantly, Aang deflected the three fireballs that had been sent to us with his airbending. "I'll hold them off. Run!" he told us. Quickly, the boy lept forward and spun his leg across the ground and sent a low airblade to swept the legs out from underneath the Fire Sages. Just as he did, however, the more experienced benders sent a fireball directly at us. All of my nerves left me then as I used my bending to put out the flames. Nodding in thanks, Aang ran with us from the chamber. "If the Avatar contacts Roku, there's no telling how powerful the boy will become!" I heard the old Fire Sage shout. "Split up and find him!"

"Follow me!" Aang yelled to us as he took the lead.

"Do you know where you're going?" Sokka asked as Aang whipped ahead and rounded a corner.

A moment later Katara, Sokk and I stopped when Aang ran back towards us. "Wrong way!" he shouted fearfully, running clear past us. Letting out a squeak of fear, I ran after Aang the second I saw one of the old Fire Sages round the corner. I could have sworn I heard the man pleading for us to come back. Two hallways later, we reached a dead end. We turned to run once more, but we were halted by the sight of the lone Fire Sage, his hands raised in peace.

"I don't want to fight you!" he said. "My name is Shyu, I'm a friend."

"Firebenders _aren't_ our friends," Sokka said as Aang stepped in front of us, instantly taking up a defensive airbending stance.

We were surprised when the Fire Sage stepped forward before dropping to his knees and pressing his palms to the floor submissively. "I know why you're here, Avatar," he told us.

"You do?" Aang asked in surprise, dropping his stance.

"Yes," Shyu said, rising from the floor to stand again. "You wish to speak with Avatar Roku. I can take you to him.

"How?" Aang asked skeptically.

Not taking his eyes off of us, Shyu slid the lamplight on the wall to the side and placed his palm on the wall. Using his firebending to open a secret passage. "This way," he told us. Nervously, I glanced at my siblings. I could hear the other Fire Sages in the distance. "Time is running out! Quickly!"

As the four of us exchanged looks with each other, we silently decided to trust the old firebender. Hopefully, it wouldn't come back to bite us. For the next few minutes, we walked through the caverns of the temple with Shyu in the lead.

"Avatar Roku once called this temple his home," the old man told us. "He formed these secret passages out of the magma."

"Did you know Avatar Roku?" Aang asked.

"No" Shyu shook his head as we continued walking. "But my grandfather knew him. Many generations of Fire Sage guarded this Fire Temple long before me. We all have a strong spiritual connection to this place.

"Is that how you knew Aang was coming?" I couldn't help but ask.

"A few weeks ago, an amazing thing happened," Shyu told us. "The statue of Avatar Roku; its eyes began to glow!"

"That's when we were at the Air Temple" Katara revealed. "Avatar Roku's eyes were glowing there, too!" Looking down, I remembered where I had been at that point in time. On Prince Zuko's ship and being scared beyond belief by Colonel Monkey-Face.

"At that moment, we knew you had returned to the world."

"If this is the Avatar's temple, why did the sages attack me?" Aang asked. I couldn't help but wonder the same thing, though I had a feeling as to the answer.

"Things have changed" Fire Sage Shyu sighed. "In the past, the sages were loyal _only_ to the Avatar. When Roku died, the sages eagerly awaited for the next Avatar to return. But he never came..."

"They were waiting for me" Aang muttered guiltily.

"Hey don't feel bad," Sokka said in a humous, mocking tone. "You're only a hundred years too late." All three of us scowled at my twin and as we all stopped walking, I slapped the back of Sokka's head.

"They lost hope the Avatar would return," Shyu said, ignoring my brothers' comment. "When Fire Lord Sozin began the War, my grandfather and the other sages were forced to follow him" he continued, shaking his head sadly. "I never wanted to serve the Fire Lord. When I learned you were coming, I knew I would have to betray the other sages."

"Thank You for helping me" Aang smiled humbly before Shyu lead our group up a spiraling flight of stairs.

"We'll follow these stairs to the sanctuary," he told us.

We walked silently for a few minutes. As we did, I thought about the Fire Sages and how they had a certain connection to the Spirit World. Briefly, I wondered if Shyu could tell me more about Mava's blessing, but quickly I dismissed the thought. The only person who could tell me anything about it was Mava herself. Or maybe Gran Gran.

Once we were close to the top of the stairs, Shyu continued talking. "Once you're inside," he said. "Wait for the light to hit Avatar Roku's statue. Only then will you be able to speak with him." At the top of the stairs, it looked as if we had reached yet another dead end; until Shyu slid back a secret tile above him and climbed up to the sanctuary.

The chamber we were in now was just as beautiful as the first one we had been in. Naturally, it was decorated in the firey motif as the first as well. But this room had massive columns with beautiful dragons atop them. Across from us stood an immense door with a device that contained five open-mouthed dragons. It was terrifyingly beautiful.

"No" Shyu gasped.

"Shyu, what's wrong?" Aang asked as we all walked towards the door.

"The sanctuary doors, they're closed!" the sage told us.

"Can't you just open them with firebending?" Katara asked as Aang tugged uselessly on the dor. "Like you opened that other door?"

"No" Shyu shook his head. "Only a fully realized Avatar is powerful enough to open this door alone," he told us. "Otherwise, the sages must open this door together...with five simultaneous fore blasts."

Furrowing my brow, I tried to think of a way to get us into the room. But honestly, I didn't see how we could pull it off. Aang hadn't even started to _attempt_ waterbending yet. He had no chance of even mistakenly creating fire. Looking around my room, my eyes found my brother who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Five fire blasts, huh?" he pondered. Following his gaze, I saw that Sokka was looking up at the lamplight above us. "I think I can help you out."

* * *

Sometimes I forgot that Sokka was actually a genius. Wasn't that hard to forget, though, my twins' strokes of genius were few and far between. So the second he asked for the animal skin casings I had leftover in my bag, I didn't think twice. I just rifled through the small shoulder bag I had brought with me and handed the casings over to my brother. As he started pouring the lamp oil into the casing, I easily recognized what he was doing.

"This is a little trick I picked up from my father," he told us. "I seal the lamp oil inside an animal skin casing, Shyu lights the oil-soaked twine and, ta-da! Fake firebending!" Sokka announced, picking up the bag and holding it proudly in front of him.

"You've really outdone yourself thins time, Sokka," Katara said, clearly impressed. It seemed she forgot about Sokka's hidden genius like I had.

"This might actually work," Shyu said. With that, we got to work making the explosives and shoving the bags into the mouths of the dragons. "The sages will hear the explosion, so as soon as they go off, you rush in!" he ordered.

After Sokka shoved in the last bag, the four of us and Momo hid behind the large columns. The explosion would be large and the pillars were the only things in the room that could protect us from the blasts. "It's almost sunset" I pointed out, glancing over at Aang.

"Are you ready?" asked my little sister.

"Definitely."

In awe I watched as Shyu took his stance, thrusting a single finger forward. Instantly a small flame raced across the wicks, lighting all five bags in one go. A second later, Shyu hurried behind a column as well. I held my breath as the wicks burnt down and the bags exploded, filling the room with smoke. I barely registered Aang rushing for the door. Only it hadn't budged.

"They're still locked!" he called out.

"It didn't work" Shyu sighed as we all came out from behind the large stone pillars.

Furiously, Aang beat on the ornate door with his airbending. "Why. Won't. It. Open!?" he shouted between hits.

Worried, Katara pressed forward and took hold of Aangs arm. "There's nothing we can do..." she told him

The boy simply hung his head glumly. "I'm sorry I put you through all this for nothing," he said.

"I don't get it" I murmured as Sokka and I examined the soot-covered dragons.

"Yea, that firebending looked as strong as any firebending I've ever seen," said my twin.

Brightly, I just turned and face him with a large smile. "Sokka, you're a genius!"

"Wait," Aang spoke up in confusion. "How is Sokka a genius? His plan didn't even work."

"Keira's right, Sokka's plan _didn't_ work" Katara smiled slyly. "But it _looks_ like it did."

From there we concocted yet another plan. This time, we were going to trick the Fire Sages into _thinking_ that Aang had already entered the sanctuary. We even had Momo crawl through the large dragon mouths in order to sell the trick. Meanwhile, the rest of us, except for Shyu, hid behind the columns and waited for the sages to do the work for us.

I held my breath as I listened to Shyu lie to his fellow sages. It didn't take much convincing and soon enough I could the fire roar into the mouths of the five dragons. When the door finally opened and I heard the Great Fire Sage realize that they had been duped, I had to hold back a chuckle. Especially when Momo, from the sounds of it, jumped onto the man and didn't let go. I had to remember to give that little lemur a special treat later. If we made it out of this alive.

The second we got the chance, Katara and I rushed out from behind the large stone columns. While Katara pulled a nearby sage's tunic over his head to blind him, I pulled some water from my canteen to blind another sage with a thin coat of ice. It wouldn't last long, even when I bound the sage's wrists in ice. From my short time on Zuko's ship, I knew that firebenders had a natural heat to them that could easily melt my ice.

"Aang now's your chance!" Katara called out as we held off the fire sages. However, when Aang came out from behind the pillar, he wasn't alone.

"The Avatars coming with me" Prince Zuko spoke as he held Aangs arms tightly behind his back. And a small instant of shock that ran through our tiny resistance allowed for the apprehended fire sages to gain the upper hand and take us down. My eyes widened with fear when I saw the ice start to melt from the fire sages mouth and wrists. "Close the doors! Quickly!" ordered the fire prince. The next thing I knew, my siblings and I were being chained to the warm stone pillars.

Slowly, Zuko brought Aang out of our sights, leading him around the dragon head statues and towards the stairs. Only for Aang to slip away, somehow, and ran straight for the sanctuary. Gliding through the slowly closing doors, barely making it through. The second the doors had closed, there was a bright light I had quickly associated with spirit world stuff."He made it" I breathed out a sigh of relief. Hopefully, now he could contact Avatar Roku.

Quietly, I watched as Zuko and the Fire Sages used the bending to try and open the sanctuary doors. But obviously, the spirit world energy was too powerful for the firebenders to break through. Considering they were dealing with the Avatar, of all beings, it wasn't really surprising.

"Why isn't it working" Zuko demanded when he saw that their blasts hadn't worked.

"It must have been the light. Avatar Roku doesn't want us inside" answered the Great Fire Sage.

With a noise of aggravation, Zuko turned his attention to Shyu. Although I could have _sworn_ that his golden eyes had flicked to where I was chained up with my brother and sister. "Why did you help the Avatar!?"

Shyu rose his head proudly, though his voice was sad. "It was once the sages duty" he answered. "It is _still_ our duty."

Before Zuko could say anything more, however, there was the sound of someone clapping. But it was the voice that followed that chilled me to the bone. My instant fear causing the water cask on my hip to vibrate violently. The water inside fighting to protect me.

"What a moving and heartfelt performance" Zhao then revealed himself in all of his evil monkey-faced glory. "I'm certain the Fire Lord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him."

"Commander Zhao" bowed the Great Fire sage.

"And Prince Zuko" Zhao turned to the scarred teen. "It was a noble effort, but your little smokescreen didn't work." Suddenly Zhao's men surged forward and seized Zuko's arms. The water in my canteen was vibrating furiously now, this time it wasn't my fear triggering the water's response. "Two traitors in one day, the Fire Lord _will_ be pleased."

"Its too late, Zhao!" Zuko sneered as he fought against the fire nation soldiers. "The Avatars inside and the doors are sealed."

Zhao simply grinned in confidence as a response. "No matter," he said. "Sooner or later, he has to come out."

From beside me, Sokka and Katara shared a worried glance. We knew that Aang could take Zuko easily in a fight. But these were fully realized firebending masters, who had a few good decades of training under their belts. And Aang was a 12-year-old kid who had been trapped in ice for the last hundred years.

"When those doors open, unleash all your firepower!" Commander Monkey Face shouted as he and the other firebenders readied for attack.

"How's Aang going to make it out of this?" asked Katara, her voice shaking with worry.

"How are _we_ going to make it out of this?" Sokka continued.

"I don't know guys...I-I don't know" I whispered, my eyes drifting towards the sanctuary doors and Prince Zuko. He may have been our enemy, but Zuko wasn't evil incarnate. I learned that in the short time I had spent on his ship. He had even protected me the last time we had run into Zhao.

I was also thanking the spirits that the monkey-faced firebender didn't recognize me. Even though his soldiers had tied Shyu to the same pillar as us, Zhao hadn't bothered to look in our direction.

When the doors opened, I had to squint in order to protect my eyes from the bright light. As the light faded, we saw two glowing white eyes emerge from the darkness.

"Aang no!" Katara shouted. The distress in my little sisters' voice, I knew that this was called the Avatar state. Katara had told me after we had reunited, that it was absolutely terrifying. Like our friend was merely a shell filled with spirit energy. Looking at the boy now, I could see what she was talking about.

The firebenders struck the second Aang was visible. Shooting off flames so hot that I could feel them over where I was chained. Looking once more at Aang, my eyes widened in shock. Instead of my innocent friend, there stood a wizened man who held an eerie blue glow around his form.

"Avatar Roku!" gasped Shyu.

That was Avatar Roku? How was he even here?

With the others, I watched in awe as Avatar Rokus apparition moved his arms and sent the flames back at the attacking firebenders. Only even I could tell that the flames were more intense, due to the avatar's power. The flames were so hot, that they dissolved the chains that had been holding us to the columns. I don't know why, but I looked to where Zuko had been chained, only to see him running for the stairs.

"Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple!" Shyu warned us. "We _have_ to get out of here!"

" _Not_ without Aang!" Katara and I demanded.

The temple around us rumbled and shook as Avatar Roku summoned streams of hot lava. Terrified, all of the firebenders fled from the temple. I wanted to as well, to get my siblings and me to safety. That meant Aang too. Not wanting to wait around, Shyu had fled with the rest of the firebenders. While my siblings and I were crouched behind the destroyed pillar, I risked a peek at the glowing form of the previous Avatar. Only to see him lower his hands and exhale soundly. Slowly the light surrounding Roku disappeared and my eyes widened when Aang, looking weary, was left in Roku's place.

Without a moment's hesitation, I nudged Sokka and the three of us rushed over to our friend. "We got your back," I told the boy as Sokka and I lifted him back to his feet.

"Thanks' Aang breathed. "Wheres Shyu?" he asked.

"I don't know" Katara answered sadly.

We turned towards the stairs then, only to watch in horror as the stairwell filled with molten lava. Panicked, I looked around frantically, before hitting Sokka's arm. Nodding Sokka led us to the large hole in the temple wall that Roku had created. It had been our only exit, except the was no escape. We were on the topmost level of the quickly crumbling temple.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere Appa and Momo came soaring in. Allowing us to leap from the temple and into Appa's saddle. Looking back at the destruction, watching the Fire Temple crash into the volcano, I let out a sigh of relief. If we had stayed only a second longer, we would all be toast.


	9. Chapter 9: The Waterbending Scroll

**Chapter Nine**

 **The WaterBending Scroll**

Ever since we had left Roku's island, I had been sitting at Appa's reins while Aang paced the saddle. The boy was worried. And rightfully so. I didn't know how to comfort him, so I figured that offering to steer Appa would be the least I could do.

"Would you sit down?" Sokka suggested. "If we hit a bump, you'll go flying off. What's bugging you anyway?" he asked.

"It's what Avatar Roku said" Aang answered worriedly, finally stopping his pacing. "I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives."

"Well, let's see" Sokka started sarcastically. "You pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you a hundred and twelve years. I'm sure you can master three more by next summer."

"Not helping Sokka" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"I haven't even _started_ waterbending and we're still weeks from the north pole. What am I gonna do?" Aang asked frightfully.

"Calm down, it's going to be ok," Katara said as she grabbed Aangs arm.

"She's right" I added "If you want, Katara and I can try and teach you some of the stuff we taught ourselves back home" I offered. That seemed to do the trick, as Aang finally sat down in front of Katara.

"You guys would do that?" he asked with a light smile.

"Of course" I nodded.

"We'll just need to find a good source of water first" Katara continued.

In return, Sokka gave a sarcastic smile to our sister. "Maybe we can find a puddle for the three of you to splash in."

We flew for a little while longer, both Katara and I on the lookout for a river or lake or something for us to try and teach Aang some of the basic moves we had taught ourselves. It worried me a bit, however. Aang was the Avatar, he technically had mastered waterbending hundreds of times before in his past lives. He was bound to pick it up in no time at all. And that's what worried me. Katara was the type to get...aggravated when someone was advancing farther than her. She ignored me for two weeks when I figured out how to raise a fish out of the water before she did.

Which was another reason why I still hadn't told my little sister about the blessing I had received from Mava. I knew that I needed to tell my brother, sister, and Aang. But I didn't know how. We had gone our whole lives believing that Sokka was the eldest, that he had been the one to be born first out of the two of us. But we were wrong. Gran Grann and our father had kept that from us. Along with the fact that Mava's blessing was traditional in the southern water tribe. It made me wonder what else they were keeping from us.

After a few hours of flying, we finally landed beside a decent sized river. Complete with a large waterfall.

"Nice puddle" Sokka deadpanned as Aang, Katara and I looked at our surroundings with excitement.

Appa was the first of us to get into the water as he flew down into the river. His large splash knocking Momo off of the rock he had been standing on. I couldn't help but laugh as the large fluff monster turned over and began to float on his back.

Smiling, Aang took off his shirt and began to run towards the water. "Yea!" he cheered. "Don't start without me boy!"

"Remember the reason we're here" Katara stopped him.

"Oh right," Aang said as he stopped short and looked at me and Katara. "Time to practice waterbending," he added as he put his clothes back on.

"Great" Sokka drawled sarcastically. "So what am I supposed to do?" he asked.

"You could..." Aang thought for a moment before handing Sokka a branch with a bushel of leaves at the end. "You could clean the gunk out of Appa's toes," he said.

Sokka simply frowned and crossed his arms, clearly unimpressed with his task. "So, while you guys are playing in the water, I'm supposed to be hard at work picking mud out of a giant bison's feet?"

"Mud and bugs!" Aang smiled cheerfully.

"Okay," my brother finally sighed as he took the stick and walked over to Appa who was still floating in the river. "Yea don't get too happy" Sokka continued after he had climbed up onto Appa's stomach and began brushing between the bisons' large toes. "You've got to do me next." At that, Appa let out a low, happy, moan. Almost as is he was agreeing to my twins' ultimatum.

With Sokka and Appa occupied, Katara, Aang and I stood by the shore. Readying ourselves for the Avatars first waterbending lesson.

"So this is a pretty basic move," I told him. "It was one of the first things Katara and I learned" With a nod to my little sister, I had her demonstrate.

"It took me months to perfect" Katara added. "So don't get frustrated if you don't get it right away," she said before she began to move her hand back and forth. Using her bending to make small waves in the water. "Just push and pull the water like this" Katara told him, while Aang simply looked up her with a smile. "The key is getting the wrist movement right."

After watching Katara do a couple of pulls, Aang jumped up and worked through the motions himself. "Like this?" he asked, moving his hands the same way Katara was. Only nothing was happening. Biting my lip, I walked over to the Avatar and repositioned his feet for him. Aang giving me a small smile of thanks in return as he continued making the motions.

"That's almost right," Katara said kindly. "If you keep practicing I'm sure eventually..."

"Hey, I'm bending it already!" Aang interrupted as he made much larger waves than Katara. Not bad for his first time bending water. Then again...he was the Avatar after all.

"Wow," Katara was surprised. "I can't believe you got that so quickly. It took me almost two months to learn that move."

I bit my lip once more. Not willing to tell my sister that it had taken me about two _weeks_ to master the gentle waves. Never had I thought about _why_ mastering the small techniques took such little time compared to my sister. Then it hit me. It must have been because of Mava's blessing. I made a mental note to ask the water spirit about it the next time I found myself in her oasis.

"Well, the two of you had to figure it out all on your own" Aang assured my sister. "I'm lucky enough to have such great teachers," he said, causing a small blush to reach my sisters' tanned cheeks.

"Thanks, Aang" Katara smiled.

"So what's next?" the boy asked, eager for his next lesson.

"How about something little more difficult?" I suggested. "We call it streaming the water." Once more, I looked to Katara who nodded, moving her hands to bend the water. Raising a stream of water from the river, she held the liquid in the air and moved it around.

Seeing that Katara had everything taken care of with Aang, I decided to leave the two of them alone. Instead, I wandered along the shore before stopping near the raging waterfall. I remembered reading about meditation being a good way for certain people to contact the spirit world. Iroh had a fairly decent selection of books, some of which he had snuck into my bag as he was getting me ready to finally escape Zuko's ship.

One of the books he had given me, dealt solely on contacting the Spirit World. I haven't read much of it, but I think there may be information on actually traveling to the spirit world. How did a firebender I barely knew know that contacting spirits would be something I needed information on.

Ever since the solstice I've been wanting to talk with Mava again. I had so many questions. The last time I had been to her Oasis, she had that I was special compared to the other waterbenders she had blessed. She had also said something about training. I could only assume that meant that Mava was going to teach me about my waterbending. Being the spirit of water and all.

Another thing I had learned from Iroh's books was that it always helped a bender to be with their element. The weather was slowly starting to grow warmer, but not warm enough for me to want to submerge my self in the river. So instead, I sat on a slick rock as close as possible to the waterfall, with my feet in the water and my eyes closed. It didn't matter how you meditated, Iroh had once told me, so long as you opened yourself to the energy of the Spirit World.

So that's what I did. I closed my eyes, with my feet in the water, I focused on my breathing before feeling the energy of the water. Instantly, I could tell that the energy wasn't that of my bending, that it was my element itself. Which was also a little strange and confusing. Hopefully, Mava could tell me what exactly it was that I was feeling.

It didn't take long for the water to react. Almost as soon as I closed my eyes, as soon as I got control of my breathing, the water reacted. Rising to the middle of my calf with every inhale, and lowering with every exhale. If I wasn't a waterbender then I probably would have been more concerned about my clothes getting wet.

I wasn't expecting to cross over to the spirit world my first try. But still, my breath hitched as I felt the energy crackle across my skin. It was such a shock to suddenly be able to even _smell_ the familiar scent that hung in Mava's Oasis. But I wasn't there. I knew that even if I could hear her bell-like laugh, I couldn't see her. Not yet. And that was the only reason why I decided to open my eyes.

Well that, and the fact that I could hear a splash, and then Sokka shouting at Aang. Looking at my sister and Aang, I could see an annoyed look on Katara's face while Aang looked excited to have learned a new waterbending move. Which really I wasn't surprised, Katara tended to get a bit...competitive. And practicing with a natural like Aang would definitely bring that out in her.

"That's enough practicing for today," Katara said, aggravation coating her voice.

"Yea I'll say!" commented Sokka, his head still sticking out of the water, causing me to giggle as I approached them. My laugh was cut short, however, when my twin pointed to his left. "You just 'practiced' our supplies down the river." Sure enough, our bags were far away, floating far down the river.

"Uh, sorry," Aang said guiltily with a sheepish smile. "I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff.

Thankfully I had kept my bag with me. There was no way I'de be able to replace the books Iroh had given me. Briefly, I wondered if Aang had waterbended our small handful of coins down the river as well. But then I remembered that Katara had been holding on to them.

Once we got Sokka and Appa out of the water, I used my bending to dry the three of us off. Well, Aang and Katara had to help get Appa dry, otherwise, it would have take all day.

It didn't take long for us to reach the nearest town after leaving the river. Though calling it a town was a bit of a stretch. It was more of a market place and port. Where merchants of all kinds could dock and sell their wares. There were some wandering the market who caused my siblings and I to look on nervously. While Aang seemed to pay the heavily armed men any mind as he looked around at the kiosks in wonder.

Which really, I couldn't blame him. The port was filled with lots of interesting things from all over the world. For a few minutes, the three of us wandered about the port, but still stuck close by.

"We've got exactly three copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us," Sokka said. "Let's spend it wisely."

"Uh, make that two copper pieces, Sokka," Aang said sheepishly. "I couldn't say no to this whistle" he continued, holding up a white bison whistle. Taking a large breath, Aang put the whistle to his lips while my siblings and I covered our ears in preparation. But when Aang blew into the woodwind, no noise seemed to have come out.

"It doesn't even work" Sokka scoffed as he pulled his fingers from his ears. "Even Momo thinks its a piece of junk"

"No offense, Aang, but I think maybe Katara should hold the money from now on," I told the little bald monk.

"Why not you?" Aang asked.

"I may be the oldest, but Katara is far more responsible" I grinned, swinging an arm over my sister's shoulder and giving her a light squeeze before walking away from the others. It was as I was looking at some Water-Tribe inspired jewelry that I realized... up until recently, we had thought that Sokka had been the oldest. It wasn't until my spirit world vision that we had learned the truth. Hopefully, the others didn't pick up on my little slip-up and I could keep Mava's blessing a secret from them for a little while longer.

I could hear them trailing behind me, ooh-ing and aah-ing over the baubles being sold. And honestly, I was with them in that aspect. There were so many _things_. Sure a lot of the stuff people claiming to be water tribe was obviously fake.

Considering the man shouting from in front of his boat literally said 'Water Nation'. Before he ran over to us as we walked passed him. "Oh you there," he said, "I can tell from your clothing that you're world-traveling types. Perhaps I could interest you in some curios?" the man offered.

"Sure!" Aang instantly responded. "What are curios?" he asked.

The man looked confused for a moment as he thought about Aangs question. "I'm not entirely sure. But we got 'em!" he said excitedly after a moment or two. Seeing that he had a potential customer in Aang, the man put his hand on the Monks' shoulder and walked him towards the ship.

It took me less than a second to realize that Aang had been lead away. Instantly, I nudged my siblings and we quickly followed after our naive friend.

The inside of the ship was a mess of objects from all around the world. And I could tell that the stuff that looked like water tribe, actually _was_ water tribe. It made me wonder, briefly, how these people got all of this stuff.

It was the graying man with an iguana parrot on his shoulder that told me all I needed to know. These guys were pirates. They probably stole everything in here. When the pirate asked about buying Momo, I took that as an okay to pocket a water tribe dagger. Mine had disappeared after we had left Kyoshi island, so I figure taking back what belonged to my people would be ok. I just had to be careful to not get caught with it.

At least not until we were far away from the pirates.

"Keira, Aang, look at this" Katara spoke. Sneaking the dagger into my bag as quickly as possible, I made my way over to where Katara was standing with an open scroll. "It's a waterbending scroll!" she said excitedly as Aang and I walked over to her. "Check out these crazy moves."

"Where did you get a water bending scroll?" Aang eagerly asked with wide gray eyes.

Shouldering passed us, the pirate slammed his hand down on the scroll and pulled it away. "Let's just say I got it up north, at a most reasonable price... _free,_ " he said, rolling the scroll back up and putting it back in its little slot on the shelf. Whatever guilt I might have felt about putting the water tribe dagger in my bag was beyond gone.

"Wait a minute..." Sokka started on the other side of the room. "Sea loving trader, with suspiciously acquired merchandise and pet reptile birds?" he was almost yelling, now, with his eyebrows raised. "You guys are pirates!" my brother accused as he spun to face the pirate who had invited us to the ship in the first place.

The man simply put his arm around Sokka's shoulders. "We prefer to think of ourselves as 'high-risk traders.'"

At that, I decided to go wait outside with Momo on my shoulder. I could already tell that Aang and Katara were interested in buying the waterbending scroll. And I knew that there was no way that the pirate was going to sell it to them for the two small copper pieces that we had.

"What was that all about Katara?" I heard Aang ask a few minutes later. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the others walking down the gangplank.

"Yea I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection," Sokka said as we continued to walk down the street. Curiously, I glanced over to our little sister.

"I'll just feel a lot better once we get away from here" was all she said, wrapping her arms around herself as we walked.

I had never stolen anything before in my life. Except for maybe mom's old parka, but even then it was more of a borrowed gift. There was something exhilarating in pocketing the knife. And it helped that the dagger was already stolen property, to begin with.

Suddenly we heard one of the pirates shouting at us. "Well, well. Look who's come to their senses" Aang said as he calmly turned back towards the ship. "Told you the haggling would pay off."

Suddenly, in an instant, we were surrounded by a group of armed pirates. Each and every one of them were hissing menacing words and swinging their weapons. All of us were visibly shaken and I could feel my heart pounding in my ears. Had they figured out that I had stolen the dagger right from under their noses? On instinct, I clutched the strap of my bag tightly.

"I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us" Katara's voice shook as she began to back away. Before turning and running down the street. Cursing under my breath, I ran after my sister. Thankfully Aang and Sokka had the good sense to follow after us. The pirates certainly helped with that.

As we ran down the street, I could tell that a little more than half of the pirates had stopped chasing us, Choosing to go in another direction, probably hoping to cut us off. Using my bending, I pulled water from a nearby bowl and pooled it on the ground where it instantly froze.

Thankfully that slowed down the one group of pirates as we ran passed a familiar looking cabbage merchant. Katara, Sokka and I bumped the cart as we ran, while Aang simply used his airbending to fly just over the cabbages. Before sending a blast of wind that threw the cart into the rest of the pirates.

"My cabbages!" the merchant shouted angrily, causing me to wince. "This place is worse than Omashu!"

I couldn't believe that the pirates were going through all this because of a stupid whale tooth dagger.

As we ran, I kept my eyes peeled for any water. But it was just my luck, there wasn't any water close enough for me to bend. So really all I could do was run. At least, until we were cornered in the dead-end of a street.

"Now, who gets to taste the steel of my blade first?" asked the skeevy pirate.

"No thanks," Aang responded sternly before spinning and hurling a blast of air a the pirates, sending them backward. Then he ran towards the pirates, with his glider out. "Hang on tight!" he called over his shoulder.

"Aang! I thought we were running away from the pirates!" Katara called out. Not asking any questions, I grabbed onto the tail end of Aang's glider. Mys siblings taking my lead as we flew just over the pirates a moment later. Sokka and I kicking some of them in the head as we went.

I don't know how long we flew for. But I was seriously impressed when Aang touched down near our campsite by the river. Flying that distance, with just his glider and three passengers, should have been a difficult task. But since Aang was the Avatar, I figured it was a fairly easy feat.

We walked the rest of the way, and I kept as close to the water as possible. The energy from my element, causing my nerves to settle. Even just a little bit. Briefly, I pulled a small stream of water towards me, idly swirling it between my hands before sending it back into the river.

"I used to kind of look up to pirates" Aang admitted once we were back at our camp by the river. "But those guys were terrible."

"I know" Katara started mischievously. "That's why I took _this_ " she continued. My eyes widened as she held out the waterbending scroll that we had found in the shop.

"No way!" Aang said in surprise.

"Isn't it great!"

"And I thought that they were actually after this" I added, sheepishly, pulling the dagger out of my bag.

"No wonder they were trying to hack us up!" Sokka exclaimed. "My sisters are a bunch of thieves! You stole their stuff!"

"I prefer to think of it as high-risk trading" Katara joked.

"Good one, Katara" Aang laughed.

"Sokka, where do you think they got these things? And the rest of the stuff in their shop?" I asked. "They stole it from the water tribe. From _our_ tribe!"

"It doesn't matter" Sokka snapped, cutting me off. "You and Katara put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes and because you wanted something shiny!" he continued, jabbing his finger at Katara and me respectively.

"These are real waterbending forms. You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending!" Katara responded. All I could do was glare at my brother. He should have known me better than to assume that I took the dagger because it was shiny. It was a freaking whalebone for Spirit's sake!

Sokka simply scoffed and walked away. "Whatever," he said.

"Well...what's done is done" Aang intervened. "We have the scroll, we might as well learn from it" he suggested.

It didn't take long for me to realize that Katara really just wanted to practice for her self. To get the move perfected before Aang or I could have anything close to a turn with the scroll. Why we didn't just look at it and learn at the same time, I didn't understand.

I could help the roll of my eyes when she told Aang to hold the scroll open for her. Instead of waiting around for my little sister to get over herself, I sat down beside the rock that Sokka was sitting on.

"Let me see that," Sokka said when I began to fiddle with my stolen dagger. Looking at him with wide eyes, I handed the weapon over to my warrior-in-training twin. "It's just like the one Dad gave you before he left," he said.

"I know" I nodded, hugging my knees to my chest. "I lost mine a while back. So when I saw this one in the pirates' shop..."

"You thought of dad" my brother sighed, handing the knife back to me.

"I thought of dad" I agreed. "And I thought of the rest of the tribe. And I thought about how those guys took stuff from our home, from our tribe, and were going to sell them to people who won't even appreciate the work that went into making this."

Sokka sighed beside me and I could tell that he was shaking his head. "I get it, Keira. Still, it's just not like you."

Looking down at the dagger I traced my thumb over the hilt. The blade itself was made from a whalebone, while the hilt was mostly wooden and wrapped lightly with purple and blue dyed strips of cloth. Carved into the end, and painted blue and white, was the symbol of our people. The moon to represent the moon spirit, and waves for her ocean counterpart.

Also known as Mava's parents.

Taking a breath, I opened my mouth to speak...only to be interrupted by the sound of water hitting flesh. Followed by Sokka's laugh. Opening my eyes, I looked over to Katara, who was wiping water from her face. Obviously not getting the water whip move on her first try. At the frustration on Katara's face, I couldn't help but let out a small giggle of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Katara glared, her eyes going rapidly between me and Sokka.

I chose not to answer, unlike Sokka. "I'm sorry, but you deserved that," he said before turning to Aang. "You've been duped; she's only interested in teaching herself."

"Aang and Keira will get their turn once I figure out the water whip" Katara snapped before turning back to the river. Curious I stood and walked over to Aang and looked at the scroll one more time. "Ugh, why can't I get this stupid move!?" she shrieked when she tried once more, only for the water to splash poor Momo.

"You'll get it," I told her, hoping to ease my sister's frustration. Earning me a glare in return.

"Keira's right" Aang agreed. "You just gotta shift your weight through the stances." With that, Aang attempted the water whip for himself, doing it perfectly on his first try. "There see, the key the bending is-" but the young Avatar was cut off by Katara's scream of frustration.

"Will you please shut your air hole!" she snapped. "Believe it or not your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes! Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally _gifted_!" she shouted.

"Katara!" I hissed, while Sokka shook his head at our sister in aggravated disappointment. While Ang looked at my sister with tears welling up in his wide gray eyes.

"What?" Katara all but demanded, before looking back at Aang. Once she saw the hurt look on our friend's face, Katara's blue eyes widened with regret. "Oh my gosh, Aang, I am _so_ sorry," she said. "I don't know what came over me. But you know what, it won't happen again" Katara added as she walked over to the stump Aang had put the scroll down on. "Here, this is yours. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore."

"It's okay Katara," Aang said softly, taking the scroll when Katara handed it to him.

After we all reconciled, and I bended the excess water from Momo's fur; the four of us got to work setting up camp. Which really just consisted of Sokka, Katara and I setting up our sleeping bags. Once mine was laid out on the ground, I split off from the others and went in search of some firewood. Which was more of an excuse than anything. Really I just wanted to walk back towards the rock I had been sitting on earlier. It was a safe distance from camp, and I didn't want Katara seeing me practice the water whip.

I had all but memorized the movements. So pulling the water to me, I moved fluidly; shifting my weight like Aang had said. He may have been a novice like me and my sister, but Aang was also the Avatar. He's mastered waterbending hundreds of times before.

My form was still shaky, but I had managed to at least whip the water. However feebly. I knew that if I just pushed myself a little harder, I could all but perfect the move in no time at all. The hard part, as usual, would be to fake my progress for Katara's sake. That girl was simply far too competitive for her own good.

* * *

After a few hours of practicing the water whip, I sat on the same rock as before and began to meditate once more. This time, though, I wasn't trying to reach Mava. I just needed a calm down from the excitement from earlier.

I hadn't felt my fear earlier when we were running from the pirates. It was still there, sure, but it didn't paralyze me as it had been since leaving home. Hopefully, it lasted, being afraid all the time will only slow us down on our journey.

I must have spent the entire night in the same spot. Because the next thing I knew, the sun was slowly lighting up the sky. Cursing to myself, I jumped off of the rock and raced back towards the campsite. I doubt that the others would have waited on me to get firewood, but I still grabbed a few loose sticks here and there, just in case.

As I walked, I could hear the telltale sound of water splashing. Curious, I followed the noise. Not surprised to see Katara at the riverbank, with the scroll, practicing the water whip. Deciding to leave Katara to her practice, I turned from the river and made my way back to our campsite.

Thankfully the boys were asleep when I got there. Sokka was sure to have questions about where I had been all afternoon. Telling him I was practicing the water whip my self wouldn't have been that much of a lie.

Suddenly, as I was taking out my braids for the night, Sokka began to stir. "Huh?" he mumbled sleepily, "Keira...where have you _been_?" Sokka asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Before I could answer, Sokka interrupted me. "And where did Katara go?" he questioned, before scurrying over to his bag, where I'm assuming he had put the waterbender scroll. "I don't believe it" he muttered.

At that same time, Aang woke with a yawn. "What's wrong?" the Airbender asked. "Oh, hey Keira" he added with a grin.

"She took the scroll!" Sokka told Aang. "She's _obsessed_ with that thing. It's just a matter of time before she gets us all in deep-" but Sokka never got a chance to finish the sentence. Suddenly, a rope wound its way around my brothers' wrists and pulled him forward. Looking up, I saw one of the pirates from earlier.

"Aw crap," I muttered, putting my hand on my waist to grab my waterskin, only to remember that it had been emptied earlier that day. And I stupidly hadn't refilled it. So instead of relying on my waterbending, I bent down to pull the stolen dagger from my boot. Only for a rope to wind its way around my wrists.

"I got them!" a pirate exclaimed. "Come on!" he added. Beside me, I could see Aang caught in some sort of net.

Sokka and I struggled against the ropes as the pirates dragged us back towards the river. Where I had last seen Katara. Cold fear ran through at the thought of the pirates hurting my little sister. What I wasn't expecting, however, was to see Zuko and Iroh on the river bank.

"Ah, young Keira, I was wondering when we would meet again" Iroh smiled warmly. Despite the circumstances, I couldn't help but smile back.

"Nice work" Zuko complimented the pirates as he looked over the three of us. His golden eyes lingering on me briefly before snapping over to Aang.

"Aang, guys, this is _all_ my fault" Katara whimpered.

"No, Katara, it isn't" Aang tried to comfort her, but it wasn't working.

"Yea it kind of is" Iroh's words earning him a glare from my sister.

I would have said something. But I knew that the pirates weren't here for a dagger they were selling for smaller coin. The scroll was the big moneymaker, and I knew that they would be more upset about that.

Zuko ignored the exchange, and instead looked to the pirate captain. "Give me the boy."

"You give us the scroll" was the response.

"You're really going to hand over the _Avatar_ for a stupid piece of parchment?" Sokka asked. If my hands were free then I probably would have hit my brother.

"Sokka!" I hissed.

"Don't listen to him, he's trying to turn us against each other!"

The pirate captain turned from Sokka and me, before looking at Aang. "Your friend is the Avatar?" he asked.

"Sure is!" Sokka nodded.

"Sokka!" I said a little loud, trying to shift so I could kick him. "Shut it!"

But of course, my twin didn't listen. "I'll bet he'll fetch a lot more on the black market than that fancy scroll."

"Shut your mouth, Water Tribe peasant!" snapped the Fire Nation prince.

"Yea, Sokka, you should really shut your mouth" Aang muttered,

As Sokka spoke the pirates again, I realized exactly what he was doing. Baiting the two bad guys against each other. Classic.

"Keep the scroll," the pirate captain told Zuko. "We can buy a hundred more with the reward we'll get for the kid."

I wasn't surprised that Zuko and two of his soldiers sent blasts of fire our way. What surprised me was the fact that while the pirates, my brother, and Aang all jumped away from the flames, I had stayed put. What's more...the flames didn't touch me. Instead, a wall of water stretched from the river and circled me. Protecting me from the fire.

This was the first time I had _truly_ seen water react the way Mava had said it would. And it was absolutely _amazing_. The second the flames dissipated, the water dropped to the ground and soaked into the river bed.

The second the fight between firebenders and pirates broke out, I rolled out of the way and ran towards Katara.

"Hey sis" I grinned. Not waiting for Katara to so anything, I moved to the back of the tree and untied the ropes that bound my sister. Without saying anything more I bent down and pulled my new dagger from my boot. Positioning it as best I could between my hands to cut the rope.

"Thanks, Keira. What was that just now?" Katara asked, obviously referring to my water shield.

"I'll tell you later" was all I said before looking around for some kind of escape. "There!" I said, nudging Katara's shoulder when I spotted the boat. "Come one, let's see if we can get it in the water," I told her.

"What about Aang? And Sokka?" Katara asked.

"I'm sure they can get out of there," I told her. Almost sure about my words.

Katara and I struggled against the wood of the pirate ship for a few minutes. Every now and again, I would glance over my shoulder, praying to the spirits that Aang and Sokka got out of those clouds of smoke soon.

It wasn't even a minute later when I heard Aangs voice. "Katara! Keira! You guys are okay!"

"Help us get this boat back in the water so we can get outta here" was all Katara could say. Without asking any questions, the boys jumped into action and tried to help us push the boat. But still, the watercraft wouldn't budge.

"Ugh!" Sokka groaned. "We'd need a team of rhinos to budge this ship."

"A team of rhinos, or... three waterbenders" Aang said, causing Katara and I to turn and look at him.

"Let's do this" I smirked as the three of us took our stances. Pushing and pulling the water with ease, the river slowly raising until the ship began to float.

"Everybody in!"

Unfortunately, it didn't take very long for the pirates to realize we had stolen their boat. "Sokka can you make it go any faster?" Aang asked when he saw that the pirates were on our tail, cutting through the water in Zuko's small boat.

"I don't know how!" Sokka exclaimed. "This thing wasn't made by the Water Tribe!"

It took seconds for the pirates to catch up and jump on board the boat we had stolen. Thankfully, Aang managed to use his newfound waterbending to sweep most of them overboard. Katara and I shared a determined look before shifting our weight through the stances, both of us performing perfect water whips. Throwing the last two pirates off.

"Hey, you did the water whip!" Aang cheered.

"We couldn't have done it without your help," I told him.

"Would you three quit congratulating each other and help me out?" Sokka's voice cut in. My eyes widened in shock, and fear for my twin was all but crushing me. When the pirates through him onto the lower deck, I ran passed the pirates and went for my brother.

"Aang, look!" Katara shouted when she and the bald monk finally joined us. Looking to where my sister was pointing, my jaw dropped in shock. Our stolen boat was headed towards a huge waterfall.

"Oh no..." I whispered. When Aang turned, he was met with a pirate wielding a large knife. Instead of using his bending, Aang pulled out the bison whistle he had bought yesterday. The pirate looking confused when no sound came from the whistle.

Thinking quickly, Sokka snuck up behind the pirate and pushed him off the ship. "Have you lost your mind! This is no time for flute practice!"

"Guys, we can stop the boat!" I told them. "Katara, Aang, just push and pull the water!" Doing as I said, Katara and Aang began pushing and pulling the rapidly moving water. Closing my eyes, I let out a shaky breath and cleared my mind. Slowly, I moved my arms in the same motions as my sister and the Avatar. My eyes tingling behind my eyelids as I worked. Soon enough, I could feel the boat start to slow.

"It's working!" Katara exclaimed. "It's slowing down, we're doing it!"

"That's great...but we have another problem" Sokka interrupted. Opening my eyes, I turned and saw Zuko's boat sailing straight for us. When his boat rammed into us, the four of us were forced to jump as the ship we were on went over the falls.

I wasn't expecting Appa to break our fall.

"I knew a bison whistle would come in handy!" Aang smiled. "Thanks, Appa."

"Yea thanks buddy" I smiled, reaching over the saddle to run my hand over the bison's off-white fur.

Tiredly I watched as Katara finally apologized to Aang for how she had acted yesterday. Perking up slightly when Sokka pulled the waterbending scroll from his bag.

Even though the three of us already had the move down, it would still be a good idea to hold on to something this rare.

We flew in silence for a little while longer before Katara finally spoke up. "Keira...what was that back there?" she asked. "With the water?"

"Yea, did you learn a new waterbending move?" Aang asked.

"No" I shook my head. Biting my lip as I fiddled with the end of my freshly tied braid. "You guys remember when we were in Senlin? When Sokka, Aang and I were pulled into the Spirit World?"

"Does this have something to do with why you said you were the oldest yesterday?" Sokka asked, shuffling over so that he could sit next to me. I just nodded.

"I lied when I said I didn't remember what happened in the Spirit World."


End file.
